Free Republic

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) on Tuesday said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wouldn’t know bipartisanship “if it came up and slapped him.” “He wouldn’t know bipartisanship if it came up and slapped him and said we’re bipartisan because he has never participated in any kind of bicameral bipartisanship,” Gohmert said on Fox News. House Republican leaders offered a new debt-ceiling and budget deal Tuesday, despite a plan Senate leaders proposed Monday. The House plan goes further than the Senate’s to weaken the new healthcare law. It includes a delay in ObamaCare’s medical device tax and a mandate to remove...

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - One lawmaker in the eye of the storm that is the government shutdown offered his encouragement to residents in the Tennessee Valley Tuesday night. Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke at a dinner held by the Huntsville Republican Women. He gave a speech and then took questions from the crowd, via a video link from Washington. Cruz had been scheduled to appear in person but the turmoil in Washington kept him there. During the event, Cruz took the opportunity to blast the Obama administration on a wide range of issues. "We're seeing the constitutional rights of law-abiding...

A New York Times investigative article based on two dozen interviews with industry insiders and confidential Obama Administration documents reveals that the catastrophic $500 million Obamacare rollout "has deeply embarrassed the White House" and has the technology companies involved "publicly distancing themselves" from the Obamacare fiasco.  "These are not glitches. The extent of the problems is pretty enormous," an insurance executive who participated in Obamacare conference calls told the Times. "At the end of our calls, people say, 'It's awful, just awful.'" The Times says those closest to the three-and-a-half year-long building of Obamacare, like embattled Health and Human Services Secretary...

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro (D), met with Democratic volunteers and campaign staff at the Prince William County Democratic Headquarters in Lake Ridge on Saturday, to support Terry McAuliffe’s candidacy for Virginia Governor and excite volunteers as Election Day draws closer. “I’m here because everyone around the nation is watching this campaign. Everyone around the nation knows what a great candidate Terry McAuliffe is for Governor of Virginia and sees the contrast that really exists in this race,” Castro said. Castro pointed out several of the contrasts between McAuliffe and Cuccinelli including social agenda, ideology and proposed...

San Juan Police are investigating an attempted murder case where a man stabbed his soon to be ex-wife 24 times. It happened at the 1500 block of Scotty Street sometime before 2:30 this morning. Police Chief Juan Gonzalez tells Action 4 News a man stabbed his wife 24 times then stabbed himself multiple times. The incident started as the couple argued about their divorce. Chief Gonzalez said the husband asked officers to kill him when they found him hiding underneath the house. Police were able to taze and subdue him. Both the victim and the suspect were taken to the...

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – The Senate has taken the lead from the House in attempting to devise a plan to reopen the government and avoid a potential default in the coming week. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he is “cautiously hopeful” that the Senate can pick up where House negotiations have become deadlocked, and hopefully avoid the continued government shutdown through bipartisan Senate discussion. “I’m cautiously hopeful, optimistic that we can come to an agreement and open up the government and avoid default based on the bipartisan meetings that are going on,” Schumer said...

A few weeks back, I wrote an article about the twin evils of illegal immigration and Keynesian economics, and how they had decimated various neighborhoods of Dallas, Texas. I called attention specifically to the Valley View Shopping center near where I lived, and how it had been transformed from a fine and fashionable mall into a seedy Mexican swap meet. Several libertarians wrote me and defended such a demise as “the result of capitalism operating in a free society.” But is this so? Is Valley View just a normal part of an ever-shifting marketplace brought on by Schumpeter’s “creative destruction”...

On Monday, Sheila Jackson Lee made the following comments: It's something called a continuing resolution, but it's a bill that you put on the floor that has been passed already by Republicans and Democrats in the United States Senate….that we could vote on today. We have martial law - what that means - and my colleagues know what it means - is that you can put a bill on in just minutes. I haven't see this reported by the MSM? Have you? What am I missing here? Video Thread: Sheila Jackson Lee on continuing resolution: 'We have martial law' (Video)...

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who has been rumored as being considered to replace Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security, used some very strange language earlier this week to characterize a sentiment for a clean resolution to end the government shutdown. She labeled it a form of "martial law." Yes, we have heard Ms. Lee say some whimsical and ridiculous things in her time in office, which I'm sure embarrass her fellow Texans, but this has to be one of the most ridiculous ones to date. She pushed that the measure was bi-partisan, including Democrats and Republicans....

The Republican Party is at war with itself. It's divided over how best to shrink the federal budget and how to undo President Obama's healthcare law. Behind the GOP crackup over the government shutdown lies a much bigger battle for control of the party. And the most important actors aren't Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the tea party members of the House who brought us the government shutdown. The party rift's chief driver is a constellation of hard-line conservative fundraising groups, led in part by a former senator most Americans couldn't pick out of a lineup, Jim DeMint of South...

<p>Need evidence of Cruz's gains of late? He won the 2016 straw poll at the Values Voter Summit on Saturday with 42 percent of the vote and his speech at that gathering of social conservatives was received very warmly. He has become the center of gravity for a certain not-insignificant element of the Republican party. Cruz has proven that he will be “the Tea Party’s one true standard-bearer in the Republican presidential primary,” according to Evan Smith,the CEO and editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune,a independent media outlet covering the Long Star State.</p>

The White House and the Senate are working to squeeze House Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise from the upper chamber to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama’s signature achievement. House Republicans are fuming over the prospect that Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a plan to jam them with a last-minute deal they would have to accept or risk triggering a federal default. “They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going...

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who has been rumored as being considered to replace Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security, used some very strange language earlier this week to characterize a sentiment for a clean resolution to end the government shutdown. She labeled it a form of “martial law.” Yes, we have heard Ms. Lee say some whimsical and ridiculous things in her time in office, which I’m sure embarrass her fellow Texans, but this has to be one of the most ridiculous ones to date. She pushed that the measure was bi-partisan, including Democrats and...

<p>"..............Bello and her family were among several thousand Houston-area residents who attended an event at Reliant Center on Saturday to learn about their options under the new federal health care law and to get free medical screenings, flu shots and groceries.</p>

A Port Isabel man was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child, who was under the age of 6-years-old, and indecency with a child sexual contact. Miguel Angel Aguilera faces a minimum of 25 years in prison with no possibility of parole or early release. The jury will sentence the 22-year-old on Monday. Cameron County Assistant District Attorneys Stephanie Rollins and Brandy Bailey, with the newly created Child Abuse Unit, prosecuted the case. “This unit’s ability to focus on these extreme child abuse cases in collaboration with other key agencies has helped to ensure strong convictions,” District Attorney...

An Edinburg man filed a lawsuit against Georgia Nut Company and Dollar General after he lost his tooth while allegedly eating Sweet Smiles chocolate covered almonds. The civil lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by Jesus Castaneda The lawsuit alleges that Castaneda had the intent of consuming the chocolate covered almonds, and when he was biting down on one, he felt a sharp pain to the left side of his mouth. He then went to a dentist, where he found out his tooth was fractured and non-restorable, the lawsuit alleges. According to the lawsuit, the product was defective, unreasonably...

On the surface, Texas is one of the reddest of red, Republican states. Republicans control every statewide office. In fact, no Democrat has won a statewide office in nearly 20 years nor has Texas voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976. Republicans also control both houses by large majorities. The tradition of Texas being a Republican state seems secure enough that outgoing Governor Rick Perry bragged that “the University of Texas will change its colors to maroon and white before Texas goes purple, much less blue.” So, with all of this power locked up in Republican hands, does this...

SNA Urges Congress to End Shutdown to Protect School Meals NATIONAL HARBOR, MD (October 11, 2013) – The School Nutrition Association (SNA), a national non-profit representing 55,000 school nutrition professionals nationwide, sent a letter to congressional leaders today urging them to end the Federal Government shutdown to ensure the availability of school meals for America’s students. Starting on November 1, school meal programs will request federal reimbursements for meals served during October, but the US Department of Agriculture has not guaranteed the availability of sufficient funds to reimburse states for all meals served in October. In fact, one state agency...

Rtightened his handcuffs. “I thought I’d be treated better ep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said police who arrested him Tuesday by the Capitol Police than I was,” Rangel said on FOX Business Network Friday. Rangel was one of several Democratic lawmakers arrested by U.S. Capitol Police at an immigration reform rally on the National Mall. “I think they were trying to help me, but the cuffs were so tight that when I said loosen up the cuffs — and I wasn’t cursing then — in an attempt to loosen it up, one of the rookie cops actually tightened it,” he said....

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are taking the lead on talks to raise the debt limit and reopen the government, according to senators. Reid and McConnell are working off a six-point proposal sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would fund the government for six months and raise the debt ceiling until Jan. 31, 2014. Senators view discussions between the two leaders as a promising sign of potential bipartisan compromise. “Reid and McConnell are talking now and those discussions continue so I see that as progress,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas)....

Sen. Ted Cruz seized the opportunity afforded by a White House invitation to confront President Barack Obama over his healthcare plan. Cruz said he appreciated the chance to go see the president — but then presented him with "substantial" changes for Obamacare. In the meeting, also attended by dozens of other Republican senators, Cruz refrained from using the word "defund," reports Politico. Instead he told Obama that all sides need to "provide substantial relief to the millions of people who are hurting because of Obamacare, who are losing their jobs, being forced into part-time work and losing their health insurance."...

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...

Jonathan Bernstein considers what the pointless shutdown fight has done to Ted Cruz’s political prospects: It’s one thing to have a reputation as a loudmouth; it’s quite another to have a reputation as a loser. That’s what the shutdown fight has done to Cruz. Among true believers he’ll be the one who was a leader in a fight that surely would have won if the squishes hadn’t sold them out. But for most party actors, including many sympathetic to Tea Partyism, he’s going to be the guy who ran up the wrong hill. It would have been different if Cruz’s...

A Southmost mother is facing criminal charges after she left her five children home alone with no electricity while she went to a party. Brownsville police arrested 34-year-old Teresa Guevara on five counts of child abandonment early Thursday morning. Investigators told Action 4 News that officers were called to a home on the 2700 block of Granada Drive in the Southmost area of Brownsville around 2:45 a.m. Thursday. Officers found five children ages 2 to 13 years old inside the house with no electricity and no adult supervision. The oldest child told police that their mother had gone to a...

<p>Federal agents arrested 13 suspects in connection with an alleged sex trafficking ring in Houston that prostituted underage, undocumented girls from Mexico for up to $500 an hour, according to an indictment unsealed Friday morning.</p> <p>Federal prosecutors allege the ring operated out of several Houston bars and brothels and the suspects charged "premium prices" for sex with underage girls. The girls were locked up and beaten and charged for condoms, the indictment alleges.</p>

A teen who landed in federal immigration detention following a minor drug arrest now faces several months in federal prison for fighting guards at the Tacoma facility. Brought to the United States by his parents at age 4 or 5, Jose Jesus Villa-Chairez was 17 when police in Texas caught him with three tabs of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug. Convicted of a misdemeanor, Villa-Chairez had been locked up for more than a year on immigration-related charges when he fought with guards at the Northwest Detention Center. Federal prosecutors in Seattle contend Villa-Chairez deserves 1½ years in federal prison for scratching...

Texas Sen. John Cornyn condemned President Barack Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen as the head of the Federal Reserve. The Senator feels the reason why America finds its self in a fiscal predicament is due to stimulus “obsession”, and that the last thing the nation needs is someone who intends more “quantitative easing” because that will further harm the economy. “Ms. Yellen subscribes to the liberal school of thought that the best way to handle to our nation’s fiscal challenges is to throw more money at them,” Cornyn wrote in a press release. Not supporting Cornyn’s opposition of Yellen, is...

The Democratic National Committee is launching Spanish-language online ads and robocalls targeting Republicans on the government shutdown, it announced Thursday. The effort is the third phase of a broader campaign this week that has been hitting Republicans in their home states, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), as well as early voting states Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The Spanish-language calls and Twitter, Facebook and Google ads launching Thursday will target Latino voters in...

It's a familiar strategy: Ultra-leftist candidate enters race, regardless of whether he or she has any chance of winning. Candidate's extreme left-wing posturing gets DUmmies all aroused. Candidate fleeces DUmmies for lots of money. Candidate loses, but has vastly increased his or her bank account. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Call it the Alan Grayson Method. The DUmmies' Darling DU Jour is one Wendy Davis, a state senator in Texas who has just thrown her tennis shoes into the ring for governor. Ms. Davis catapulted to fame in June, when she filibustered a bill regulating abortions by standing for eleven hours...

Speaking at a rally to demand Congress ends the government shutdown on Friday, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) said he is “committed to the Affordable Care Act,” and he “will come back in the afterlife” to fight for it. In his closing remarks he said: “My followers, listen friends. I am committed to the Affordable Care Act, and I just want you to know this: if for some reason I should have an untimely demise, I want you to know that not only am I going to fight for the Affordable Care Act in this life, I will come back in...

Shelia Jackson Lee Suggests Govt Shutdown Drove "Poor" Capital Hill Shooter To Kill Greg Hengler | Oct 03, 2013 Yes, the Hair Tiara went there. VIDEO LINK

More than half of Texans said that the nearly $50 billion taxpayer bailout of General Motors may deter them from buying from the company, according to a survey released Tuesday. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a nonprofit ethics watchdog, surveyed more than 500 Texas residents and found that 40 percent said the bailout would “absolutely” affect their decision about buying one of GM’s new pick-up trucks. More than 22 percent said it would “likely” or “very likely” affect their decision, while just 24 percent answered “not too likely.” About 150 of those surveyed said that they were in...

“Trolling,” as generally defined by Internet, involves deliberately provoking others into outrage with over-the-top, often cynical or sarcastic rhetoric. Like his politics or not, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) has become something of a congressional expert on trolling his opponents. Today’s example only further serves to cement that reputation. In a clearly unserious press release Tuesday morning, Stockman’s office “invited fake ObamaCare enrollee Chad Henderson to be his guest at January’s State of the Union Address.” Henderson, as you may recall, became the media “poster boy” for Obamacare enrollment after he boasted about having signed up for the healthcare exchange. However,...

I am seeking information from Houston Freepers about real estate there. My daughter moved to Houston 2 years ago from San Diego when her company asked her to temporarily run their Houston office. She now has the opportunity to make the move permanent, and she wants to stay in Texas. Mr. RightField and I are here in Houston for the month of October (visiting in our motorhome). While we are here, we're hoping that local Freepers might point us to a good realtor and a mortgage broker. This will be her first home purchase, and she is looking in the...

Authorities arrested Semita Chakravarthy and charged her with capital murder after allegedly killing her 10-month-old son in 2006. Prosecutors said her son was taken to the hospital with three fractures to his skull. The mother claimed he fell off a bed, but at the hospital doctors discovered he was also covered in bite marks that matched Chakravarthy’s teeth. Doctors declared the boy brain dead a few days later. The capital murder trial for the mother began this past September and lasted three weeks. Prosecutors prepared the case over a seven year period. District Attorney Rene Guerra believed his prosecutors had...

Liberal groups are fond of claiming that voter i.d. laws as passed in Texas and in several other states will illegally disenfranchise 'hundreds of thousands' of elderly, poor, and minority voters, and using that argument they have gone to federal court and to the Obama Administration’s obliging Justice Department to try to get the laws overturned.

As a part of American Life League’s just-released meta-study of Planned Parenthood, Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) researchers analyzed the teen pregnancy rate in 16 counties of the Texas Panhandle. In those counties, over an 11-year period, closures of Planned Parenthood facilities were ongoing in the face of strong community opposition to the abortion giant’s presence. Our study of teen pregnancy rates in the Amarillo area was prompted, in part, by news reports that Texas Department of Health State Services statistics for 2010 showed that the teen pregnancy rate is lower in Potter and Randall Counties of Texas—where Planned Parenthood’s business...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, blamed by Democrats and some of his fellow Republicans as a chief architect of the ongoing government shutdown, struck back on Saturday, faulting President Obama and Senate Democrats for the political stalemate. “Let me be very clear, I don’t think we should be in a shutdown,” Cruz said in a speech to conservatives in the Virginia state capital. “Throughout the course of it, I have said we should not shut down the government. But sadly this is Harry Reid’s and President Obama's shutdown.” The government shutdown began Tuesday when the president refused to give in to...

On today's CNN State of the Union, Sen.Ted Cruz was simply "Intellect on Display" as he seemlessly won every debate point with host Candy Crowley. I say we support Ted Cruz all the way to the Presidency.

We’re used to theatrics in Washington. Often, there are games to be played before the people’s business gets done. There are rules to the games, though they’re sometimes squishy, since no one wins all the time and payback can be a problem. Also, despite the egos running higher than a kid on candy corn, politics is a “team sport” — no one can do it alone; you have to cooperate and compromise. Except when someone doesn’t, and the demagoguery begins. Freshman Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been a U.S. senator for only nine months. His assessment of his...

On October 4, 2013 Rep. Randy Weber of Texas asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for a few minutes regarding the government shutdown. At which point things got kinda emotional as he vowed “he would never surrender.” “Mr. Speaker, in 1836, a dictator showed up at the Alamo in Texas and demanded a complete, full surrender without negotiation. William Travis responded with a cannon shot: There will be no surrender.” “Now comes the President and the Senate Majority Leader demanding that this House of Representatives surrender. We will not surrender. We are...

In light of a New York Times article published Saturday that described an “epic battle” raging within the Republican Party, MSNBC’s Craig Melvin invited tea party congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) on his show and began by asking one question: “Who’s calling the shots, is it Speaker Boehner or Texas Senator Ted Cruz?” Barton began by denying that any major divide exists in the GOP between the tea party faction and the establishment. As for Cruz, Barton assured Melvin, “He is not calling the shots.” Instead, he said President Obama’s “calling the shots” in the House of Representatives “by refusing the...

FULL TITLE: Obama on Sen. Ted Cruz: attention-seeker at fault in government shutdown; Cruz says the president is “playing games” The man with the biggest megaphone in Washington, President Barack Obama, has called out Texas’ junior senator as an attention-seeking upstart. “When I came into the Senate, my attitude was I should just keep a pretty low profile in the Senate and just do the work,” he said, contrasting the early days of his own brief Senate career with the nine-month tenure of Sen. Ted Cruz. “I didn’t go around courting the media, and I certainly didn’t go around trying...

As an appetiser before helping to send the US government into famine mode, Ted Cruz railed against Obamacare on the Senate floor last month in a speech that lasted more than 21 hours and included a Darth Vader impression and reading Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham as a bedtime story for his daughters, who watched on TV. Since then "Cruz control" has begun to look sure-footed. Battling the federal government on almost any issue is a crowd-pleasing tactic in Texas, the most stubborn and independent-minded state in the union. "I think he's doing great," said Beth Cubriel, executive director...

A recently-shut down Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Carrollton, Texas, currently has a sign posted outside that reads: “Closed by Obamacare.” After being tipped off by a reader, TheBlaze traveled to the location to confirm the sign’s authenticity. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, which made its very bumpy debut earlier this week, actually forced the location to shut its doors. Attempts to call the phone number associated with the location only resulted in exchanges with an automated messaging system announcing the number is no longer in use. It is entirely possible that the...

A group of Texas congressmen armed with wire cutters made their way to the World War II Memorial in Washington after they learned the National Park Service had reinforced the barriers blocking the site with wire. “This is Chicago thuggery,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told me. “The president is trying to inflict the most amount of pain and suffering. This is not some bureaucratic mistake. This is Chicago thuggery. You try to make people hurt so they don’t resist what you tell them to do in the future.”

Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry, on a tour aimed at pushing “red state” tax and business policies to drive growth, said Friday that a major economic difference between California and Texas is that “we don’t judge success on the number of people we have on public assistance.” “California has substantially more liberal public assistance programs,’’ said Perry, considered a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, in a wide-ranging interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. “This is a state that’s going bankrupt. You have huge debt out here..and part of that is driven by these very expensive, very rich programs.” “We judge...

HOUSTON — Thanks to Texas' new senator, Dale Huls is out of a job - at least for now. Yet Huls has never been prouder that he voted for him. "Without Ted Cruz this doesn't happen," said Huls, a NASA systems engineer who was among roughly 3,000 federal employees furloughed from Houston's Johnson Space Center after tea party Republicans triggered the partial government shutdown. "This is something Americans have to get used to," said Huls. "Even if it affects your livelihood, you've got to stand up." Perhaps more than anywhere else, Texas embodies the factors behind the shutdown: big government...

In an interview on Salem Radio's Hugh Hewitt Show, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) revealed that in a conference meeting of Republican Senators earlier this week, a group of Republicans waged an "all-out attack" on himself and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Hewitt: There was, allegedly, a Republican Senate conference earlier this week where your colleague Ted Cruz took a lot of slings and arrows. Were you there, Sen. Lee? Lee: Yes, Yes! I was there and normally I don't comment at all on closed door meetings among Republican Senators. It's a pretty strict rule we follow. The one exception I'll make...