Free Republic

It’s a question that will prove crucial next year when Mitch McConnell takes the reins of a new Senate: Just how big is the Ted Cruz caucus? Three votes on the “cromnibus” late Saturday night suggest it could be as large as 22 senators — a dangerously high number for McConnell — or as few as a handful. Let’s break down the three votes — on filibustering the $1.1 trillion package, on Cruz’s point of order aimed at targeting the president’s immigration action, and final passage. The high-water mark for the Texas Republican came on his point of order vote,...

PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea on Sunday presented to the media an American man who says he illegally crossed into the country but has not been put into custody and is seeking asylum in Venezuela. Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, of El Paso, Texas, said he entered North Korea by crossing the river border with China. Details of how and when he got into the country were not immediately clear. In his comments to reporters, Martinez strongly criticized the U.S. for alleged human rights violations. "The illegal war carried out against the nation of Iraq serves as a perfect example...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday described the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States as a "suspicious" event.

One of the more insane claims in Ron Paul’s newsletters was that the Israelis were behind the WTC bombings in 1993: Whether [the 1993 World Trade Center bombing] was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little. This claim is of course so ridiculous and absurd that even Paul has to protect himself by claiming that “a Jewish friend” told him about it. What a handy rhetorical device! If only Paul had had the foresight to couch all his racist remarks in the newsletters...

While both the Ukrainian and Russian governments continue to point fingers at one another for the MH17 crash, former Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) urged caution Friday against jumping to any conclusions about where blame lies. Some American pundits accuse Vladimir Putin of having “blood on his hands” since the missile that took down the Malaysia Airlines flight may have been a Russian weapon given to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Speaking with Newsmax TV’s John Bachman earlier today, Paul said “Putin is a little bit smarter than that. I don’t think he would ever come close to participating in an act...

Joseph opened by saying, "I was just beginning to soften up to Ron Paul, largely because of his boldness in wanting to cut $1 trillion out of the federal government's budget immediately. Then came his insulting and untrue statement on "The Tonight Show" about Michele Bachmann, who is in my opinion the very best candidate seeking the Republican presidential nomination. "She doesn't like Muslims," Ron Paul said. "She hates Muslims." It's also just simply a naïve statement for Paul to make. She simply has a realistic view of Islam that holds women, Jews and Christians to something significantly less than...

Sen. Chuck Schumer came to the defense of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday, saying critics should not compare her to Tea Party icon Sen. Ted Cruz. “I think the soul of the Democratic Party is economic issues, and on economic issues, we are united,” Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And Elizabeth Warren is constructive. She’s not like Ted Cruz, ‘Shut down the government’ or ‘Don’t fund things if I don’t get my way.’ " Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has been criticized in some circles within her own party for leading the charge against a $1.1 trillion...

The Senate voted 56-40 late Saturday evening to pass a $1.1 trillion spending package that funds most of the government through next September. The vote culminates a week of acrimonious sniping and sends the spending bill to President Obama’s desk for a signature. The debate exposed divisions within the Democratic and Republican caucuses on both sides of the Capitol and sets the stage for what could be a year of internecine squabbling in 2015. Twenty-one Senate Democrats voted against the bill while 24 Republicans voted for it, including every member of the Senate GOP leadership. Democratic opponents included several senators...

So what should libertarians, Reagan conservatives, and other advocates of smaller government think of the “cromnibus” spending bill? The answer depends on your benchmark. If you dislike insider deals, pork-barrel spending, and you think the federal government should be limited to the enumerated powers put in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, then the cromnibus is an abomination.But if you look at where we are right now and you think victory is achieved whenever we can shrink the burden of government spending and limit Washington’s power over the nation, then the cromnibus is a victory.So is the glass half full...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One colleague called the tactics of tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz on the $1.1 trillion spending bill a painful echo of last year's 16-day partial government shutdown. Another senator said it was a strategy without an end game. And that sniping came from Cruz's fellow Republicans. The 43-year-old Texas freshman in a hurry — he's considering a 2016 presidential run — infuriated several GOP colleagues with a last-minute attempt to force a vote on President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration. The move upended lawmakers' weekend plans and, more troubling for his party, gave Senate Majority Leader...

Vote on legality of executive action scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EST.

I’m sure we’re all relieved to know that after the many media debacles in the last few election cycles, the cable news denizens have learned their lesson. This time around things are going to be different. Candidates will be treated fairly, with an opportunity to make their case before the American people while being subjected to rigorous examination of their actual record and their stated positions on the issues.Naw, I’m just kidding. Nothing has actually changed at all. And to lead off the two year parade of embarrassing media moments, MSNBC featured an interview with Texas Governor Rick Perry...

Did you know that there’s been a massive uptick in white thugs setting black folks on fire, yet the media has been virtually silent on this horrendous subject? Sure, we all have heard of Darren Wilson's shooting Michael Brown, but there has been no coverage of the aforementioned. Like in zero… nada… nothing… zilch. What kind of racist “news outlets” would be so heinous to cover up such gross and unspeakable evil? Why haven’t the most powerful people in our government and the entertainment industry spoken out and condemned this obvious xenophobic act of viciousness? How come there has been...

TOKYO — Just weeks after three Americans detained in North Korea were released, a United States citizen has shown up in the repressive state, appearing on television to denounce his home country as a “Mafia enterprise” and call American democracy “an illusion”. Although details remain sketchy, it seems that the man, Arturo Pierre Martinez of El Paso, Texas, willingly went to North Korea and he says he is not being detained. At a press conference in Pyongyang Sunday morning, Martinez vigorously criticized the United States for alleged human rights violations. “The illegal war carried out against the nation of Iraq...

Now that Republicans will control both houses of Congress, they will have an opportunity to deal with Obamacare. What should be done? They can begin by repealing the worst features of Obamacare. They can do that by keeping three promises many of them made to voters during the last election: Keep your job; keep your health insurance; and keep your doctor. The most direct way to get rid of all the anti-job provisions of ObamaCare is to repeal the employer mandate. The most direct way to insure that people can keep insurance they like is to repeal the individual mandate....

Ready for Warren? Run Liz Run? Run Warren Run? Draft Warren? Progressive activists haven’t agreed on what to call the movement urging Elizabeth Warren to run for president, but they largely concur on this: with every recent anti-establishment move the Massachusetts senator grows more attractive as a 2016 candidate, both in her own right and as a progressive foil for Hillary Clinton. Such sentiments were on vivid display this week at RootsCamp, a gathering of some 2,000 progressive activists held in Washington, D.C. The event was held as Warren and others on the left have been denouncing the “cromnibus” spending...

American in North Korea denounces U.S., seeks Venezuela asylum: media Reuters 2:54 a.m. EST, December 14, 2014 A U.S. citizen who illegally entered North Korea delivered a lengthy denunciation of U.S. domestic and foreign policy on Sunday and said he was seeking political asylum in Venezuela, the North's official media said. The man identified himself as Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, from El Paso, Texas, in video footage of a press conference released by the North's KCNA news agency and said he had taken "a risky journey to reach the (North) so that I could pass along some very valuable and...

Sen. Cruz's speech will inspire you. He takes no DC elite prisoners. For instance: "Why are we here today in a lame duck? Why is there a session of congress, the 2nd week of December, with so many members voting, who the American people just said they no longer want to be represented by. Why are there so many members getting ready to land a cushy law firm and lobby interest job, and industry and trade associations? All of our colleagues , whole bunch of them, we’re going to see them again— except, they’ll have more expensive suits, more finely...

Say what you will about the compromises contained in John Boehner’s spending bill, but there is at least one thing about it I love: Nancy Pelosi hates it. At issue are the reform measures the GOP inserted in the bill to get rid of excessive regulation in Dodd-Frank and so-called campaign finance reform. Pelosi expressed enormous disappointment in the White House, which supported Boehner’s bill, would support the roll back of Dodd-Frank and the 1st Amendment violations in the name of campaign finance reform. The thing conservatives should understand about this lame duck Congress is that what they do here...

Congress gave itself until Wednesday to pass a government funding bill after the two Republican senators whose efforts led to a government shutdown in 2013 disrupted legislation that would avert a shutdown. Unable to pass a massive spending bill that would keep the government funded for a year, the Senate on Saturday approved a stopgap measure to prevent a shutdown at midnight. The maneuver came during a rare Saturday session after GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee demanded a vote Friday to defund President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, thwarting Senate leadership's hopes to pass a $1.1 trillion...