Free Republic

Matthew Spalding, Director of the Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation, says the visitor center selectively cuts passages from the Constitution, weighing in on a long-running debate about the scope and limits of federal power by taking the liberal side of that debate, envisioning broad congressional powers that the founding fathers never intended. "I started looking at this stuff and it's just patently absurd," he said. "The dominant message when you walk though the doors in this exhibit you're hit with is the role of Congress is to fulfill our greatest aspirations. So the message you're teaching these...

House Republicans installed Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions at the helm of their campaign arm (National Republican Congressional Committee) this afternoon, betting he can round up the cash and candidates they’ll need to climb out of a deepening hole in the next elections. That makes a pair of Texans responsible for GOP efforts to boost their ranks in both the House and Senate. On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn won the chairmanship of the Senate GOP campaign committee (National Republican Senatorial Committee - FR Thread) a coincidence that reflects Texas’ status as a mother lode of Republican votes and donors, an increasing...

Barney Frank (D), Earl Sholley (Republican and fathers rights activist), and Susan Allen (I), candidates for the 4th Congressional District seat, held a debate Oct. 26, 2008 at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Video of the debate is here: http://www.mldf.org/SholleyDebate.html

OUTRAGE IN CONGRESS Forty-one members of Congress sent an angry letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, expressing their outrage over his expulsion of two top human rights activists who released a report accusing him of undermining democracy and intimidating critics. "We would like to express in the strongest terms our outrage over the decision by your government to expel from Venezuela two Human Rights Watch staff," said the letter, who signatories included Rep. Howard L. Berman, California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot L. Engel, New York Democrat and chairman of the committee's Western...

My name is John Wayne Tucker and I am a Republican candidate for U. S. Congress in Missoouri's 3rd Congressional District. As a minister of many years and a retired teacher, I can assure you that I stand for Christian values. Life is a non-negotiable issue with me. I have the endorsement of Missouri Right to Life. Please check my web site for details at http://www.johnwaynetucker.com With your support, I am committed to standing with God and making a difference in America. Please remember the primary August 5th, 2008. Thank you for your support. John Wayne Tucker

Many candidates in many primaries across the nation have written statements after their defeats. I may be the first to use a title like this. In more than 750 columns I’ve been unstinting in praise of able achievements and honest politicians, (Yes, there are some of each.) And I have been merciless against incompetence and stupidity. I owe the same integrity in discussing myself. My third and last run for public office ended this Tuesday. It was not a pretty sight. In a three-way contest for the Republican nomination for Congress from the 11th District of North Carolina, I ran...

<p>Congressional leaders, who have disappointed frequently this year, have done it again. This time, the House leadership has failed to find a way to get a bipartisan law against hate crimes passed and signed into law. Racial, religious, sexual and other minorities have waited long enough. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to do more than just express her support for the bill; she must find a way to make it the law.</p>

Three Removed From Senate During Hindu Prayer By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer July 12, 2007 Washington (CNSNews.com) -- Three Christian protestors were removed from the U.S. Senate chamber's observation gallery Thursday when they disrupted the morning prayer -- being delivered for the first time in history by a Hindu chaplain. The three unidentified protestors began praying loudly when Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain from Nevada, started praying. The demonstrators prayed for forgiveness from Jesus Christ for "betraying" the Christian tradition. Senate security officers quickly removed the demonstrators, and Zed continued with his prayer for peace. "May our study be...

Bush backs sweeping changes; House prospects uncertain WASHINGTON – A remarkable alliance of Senate liberals, conservatives and the White House struck a deal on an immigration reform bill Thursday that would allow up to 12 million illegal immigrants to become legal and remain in the country. In exchange, the lawmakers agreed to build a vast wall along the Mexican border, double the nation's border patrol and institute other enforcement controls. The deal was hailed as historic by both sides, and President Bush said the proposal would "help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it'll treat people with respect Despite the...

Henry Waxman, the most dogged of congressional committee chairmen, has been described by the Republicans as 'the scariest man in Washington'. Since the Democrats took control of the House and Senate in January, he has been in overdrive, launching inquiries into issues ranging from global warming to White House emails, and the one that concerns the congressman most - Iraq. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, is the public face of the new Democrat-led Congress, but Mr Waxman is the embodiment of the pent-up release of Democratic energy, determined to harry George Bush in his last two years in office. The...

WASHINGTON - Congress can stage one heck of an immigration debate, as senators have shown. But writing new immigration law? That's the real test. Starting as early as Monday, the Senate revives an immigration overhaul drama that still lacks a coherent ending. The cast is familiar and the lines well-rehearsed, but the plot is a work in progress. "We've studied this enough," said Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno, Calif.-based Nisei Farmers League. "Now, it's time to move it through." Negotiators were meeting throughout the weekend, seeking a big compromise before public debate begins. On Friday, hinting at progress, Senate...

In many ways, Pelosi's leadership style seems inspired by her former life as a stay-at-home mother of five. ... She opens her office doors to the factions of her ideologically splintered caucus, instructing staffers to stock the refrigerator and "always offer guests."

Let's give congressional Democrats the benefit of the doubt: Assume some of them earnestly think they're doing the right thing to insist on adding to the supplemental appropriation for the Iraq war benchmarks and timetables for withdrawal. Still, their own arguments--taken at face value--don't hold up. Democrats in Congress have made three superficially plausible claims: (1) Benchmarks and timetables will "incentivize" the Maliki government to take necessary steps it would prefer to avoid. (2) We can gradually withdraw over the next year so as to step out of sectarian conflict in Iraq while still remaining to fight al Qaeda. (3)...

Republican strategists plotting their party's comeback after it lost control of Congress have identified the "first lady" of Democrat politics as a key target in the 2008 White House campaign — even though she will not be running.

OK, so we learned some big things from "the thumping": Voters don't like corruption, or the mess in Iraq. Here are some other things I learned in the '06 elections: Americans aren't anti-immigrant; they are pro-assimilation. In Arizona, more than 70 percent of people voted for four state ballot initiatives on immigration: English as the official language, stripping illegal aliens of the right to bail, denying illegal aliens state-subsidized benefits (adult education programs and child care, among others), and denying punitive damages in lawsuits. Yet according to exit polls, when asked how they prefer to treat illegal immigrants, Arizonans picked...

Remember how Nancy Pelosi exploited the female card before the midterm elections? "Maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House and a new speaker to restore civility," she bragged. Women, she implied, do a better job than men because we presumably know how to get down on our hands and knees and scrub the mold and mildew out of every corner and crevice of our own domiciles. But from the way she's acting, Nancy Pelosi doesn't know spic from span. She's conducting Beltway business as usual, just like the good old boys she demonized throughout the campaign....

PRAGUE, November 9, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Russian media today are predicting a chill in U.S.-Russia ties following the results of the November 7 U.S. elections, which appeared to hand both chambers of Congress to the opposition Democrats and have led to the surprise resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Many Russian newspapers predict the changes to the U.S. Congress will mean increased criticism of Russia's human rights standards, and a deterioration in cooperation on foreign-policy issues like Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. RFE/RL correspondent Claire Bigg spoke to Aleksandr Golts, a political and defense expert for the Moscow-based "Yezhednevny...

Gathering his teenage players around him, the high school basketball coach urged them to take notice. "This is a moment in history," he said. "This is the first Muslim, and the first African-American from Minnesota, to represent you in Congress."Keith Ellison looked uncomfortable. He is indeed poised to become the first follower of Islam to enter the United States House of Representatives, but he feels that the focus on his religion has become a distraction from what he wants to achieve as a politician. "I'm not really enamoured with the whole 'first' stuff," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "I'm not...

Today’s Democratic primary in Minnesota’s very blue fifth Congressional district could prove historic. If he wins, Keith Ellison would be all-but-assured to be the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Congressman. It would also mark the first time that someone ascended to Capitol Hill courtesy of key support from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Ellison has received financial and other help from executives at CAIR, which has deep connections to supporters of Islamic terrorism. Also among those who have contributed money to the candidate are an official from a group that participated in a “tribute” to the Iranian...

WASHINGTON: Cutting across party lines, US law makers have faulted President George W Bush's administration for not having a clear position on Iran even as an expert asked as to whether America was willing to pay the price of the military option. Democrat Congressman Marty Meehan has argued along with others that the US military's forward deployment was so stretched out that it was having an impact on the way a decision on Iran would have to be factored. "We have 140,000 troops in Iraq, recruitment is down in our military. We need more soldiers and Marines, and we're having...

WASHINGTON, July 26, 2006 – Iraq is the front line in the war on terror and ultimately will serve as a "graveyard for terrorism," Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a joint session of Congress here today. Maliki repeatedly thanked the lawmakers for the United States' steadfast support for his country and assured them that Iraq will remain a solid ally in the terror war. "Iraq will never forget those who stood with her ... and who continue to stand with her in times of need," he said. The prime minister compared the losses Iraq faces at the hands of...

ANGELES (Reuters) - Karl Rove, U.S. President George W. Bush's senior political advisor, on Tuesday took the administration's message on immigration reform to Latino leaders, saying the country was approaching a "critical moment" in the debate. >br> Speaking at the annual convention of leading Latino civic group the National Council of La Raza, Rove said Bush would work with Republicans and Democrats in coming weeks to push through reform legislation that has bitterly divided Congress, the Republican Party and the nation. "We face a critical moment in our immigration debate, a moment when our nation will make an important decision...

White House adviser Karl Rove is scheduled to speak tomorrow at the annual conference of the federally funded, left-wing, open-borders-advocacy group, the National Council of La Raza. If he does not want his speech to look like an act of appeasement, he should confront La Raza on its opposition to commonsense policies designed to secure both U.S. borders and U.S. pocketbooks. La Raza, which means “The Race” in Spanish, has denounced as “horrendous” and “appalling” the House immigration bill passed in December, which was sponsored by Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.) and supported by the overwhelming majority of House Republicans....

LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America. "I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group. Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic...

Illegal Aliens: A Few Myths to Keep in Mind . . . Mexico City. Last Tuesday the Pew Hispanic Center announced that 41 percent of Mexicans surveyed in February and 46 percent questioned in May stated they would live in the United States if given "the means and opportunity." Indeed, two out of 10 people interviewed said they were prepared to enter the U.S. illegally. These figures could have amazing consequences because our Spanish- speaking neighbor has a population of nearly 106 million inhabitants.

Bringing San Diego to the forefront of the immigration debate, House Republicans will hold field hearings on the issue Wednesday at an Imperial Beach border patrol station. Two opposing immigration bills from the House and Senate will head for negotiations after the hearings senators and representatives are holding across the country this summer. San Diego area representatives have been heavily involved in the debate, some authoring sections of the House bill. Measures proposed in the House bill, H.R. 4437, include: making illegal presence in the country a felony, building 698 miles of fencing along the border, requiring employers to use...

U.S. Army Major General Bargewell’s report “suggests there was no deliberate cover-up by senior Marine officers” (MONONGAHELA, June 22) – Washington County Commissioner and Pennsylvania 12th district Republican Congressional nominee Diana Irey – reacting to a Los Angeles Times article indicating that a soon-to-be-released report by Army Major General Eldon Bargewell indicates that NO COVER-UP took place regarding Marine actions last November 19 in Haditha, Iraq – today released the following statement: “Jack Murtha owes Marine officers an apology, and I’m here to demand it on their behalf. “On May 28, appearing on the ABC News show ‘This Week with...

Seven people were injured when the driver of a pickup truck fleeing from Border Patrol agents crashed into a second pickup in Marana. A Border Patrol agent spotted the Chevrolet truck on Arizona 86 near Sandario Road about 10:30 p.m. Sunday, said Agent Sean King, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The agent was suspicious because the truck had no license plate. He tried to pull it over, but the driver sped away, King said. A helicopter followed as the truck turned onto Interstate 19 and then Interstate 10, he said. It left the freeway at Tangerine Road and ran...

U.S. Congress Passes Resolution in Support of Democracy in Belarus A resolution expressing support for democratic processes in Belarus on the eve of the presidential election passed on Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives by a commanding margin. The vote gained 419 “yeas,” with only one dissenting vote, the Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) said in a press release issued Wednesday. Two members voted “present.” The resolution was introduced by House Baltic Caucus co-chairman John Shimkus, who waved a denim ribbon on the House floor in solidarity with Belarusian democracy advocates during discussion prior to the vote. The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Survivors from New Orleans told a congressional panel on Tuesday they felt abandoned by government at all levels after Hurricane Katrina hit the city and had been subjected to racial slurs and menaced by guns when they sought food and water. "We were abandoned. City officials did nothing to protect us," Patricia Thompson, a New Orleans evacuee now living in Texas, told a House of Representatives panel investigating the response to the storm. "We saw buses, helicopters and FEMA trucks but no one stopped to help us. We never felt so cut off in all our lives,"...

U.S. Congress Demands Russian Acknowledgement of Soviet Occupation of Baltics — Paper House of Representatives has passed a resolution demanding Russia acknowledge and condemn the “illegal occupation and annexation” of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union. The resolution passed on Friday was introduced by a group of nine congressmen led by John Shimkus (R-IL) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), the founders of the so-called Baltic faction in the U.S. Congress, the Kommersant newspaper wrote on Monday. The document authors say that Russia will “strengthen stability in the region” by apologizing to the Baltic states. “The Russian government should make a...

US Congress celebrates anniversary of Solidarity 21.07.2005 The US Congress commemorated the 25 anniversary of Solidarity trade union with a special resolution. The resolution which calls Poland a model for all countries fighting for democracy and against totalitarian regimes was passed unanimously.

As House Democratic Leader, she is primed to go after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for his ethical lapses. She has called for an investigation of a $70,000 trip made by DeLay, his wife and aides to the United Kingdom, possibly bankrolled by a lobbyist. Others have assailed DeLay for a 2001 trip to South Korea funded by a registered foreign agent. But a funny thing happened on Pelosi's way to hers ethics coup: She ran afoul of the same rules she hurls at DeLay. As The Washington Post reported, last week Pelosi filed delinquent reports for three trips she...

(SHNS) - The attacks of 9/11 have nothing to do with the war in Iraq, say some congressional critics of President Bush's speech this week urging the citizenry to have patience with efforts to quell an insurgency so that a liberated people can govern themselves. But, of course, the main reason we are in Iraq and the main thing keeping us there is what we learned through the dramatic, murderous foreshadowing of the attacks four years ago - that Islamic-fascist terrorists could bring an end to American civilization. The fiction propagated endlessly by war opponents has been that the invasion...

John Bolton may finally get his up-or-down vote in the U.S. Senate this week. Or next week. Or the week after. Or maybe never, depending on how long the Democrats can maintain their filibuster against his nomination. Now an undersecretary of state, John Bolton is the president's pick for the next American ambassador to the United Nations, an organization that long has needed a severe talking-to, not to mention a thorough investigation, fumigation and general overhaul. The oil-for-food scam may be the U.N.'s biggest scandal at the moment, but it's scarcely the only one. All of which explains why Mr....

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus's judicial nominations committee, accused the Republicans of "insisting that being a poor little colored girl from the segregated South is a qualification to go onto the federal courts." "We would sooner have a rich white guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth" than Justice Brown, Ms. Norton said.

JOIN CONGRESS - SEE THE WORLD Part II - Privately Funded Travel Members of Congress have received over $17 million ($17,021,440) during the last five years traveling around the world at the expense of private organizations. This includes 607 Members of Congress who made 5,649 trips. Democrat Members took 3,150 trips, Republican Members took 2,485 trips, others took 14 trips. PoliticalMoneyLine 's new database covers gifts of privately-funded travel from 2000 to winter 2005 as disclosed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate. Details of Members' privately-funded travels, including dates, countries visited, amounts...

I'm trying to find out how long the congress was in recess before the attacks of September 11, 2001. I have been unable to find a schedule online for the year 2001, but I know that congress was in session on the day of the attacks. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Cecil Circuit Court Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. decried lawyers' arguments that a child custody hearing should be closed to the public Wednesday, saying such a move would be akin to creating atmospheres similar to historically totalitarian states. The heated exchange came at the start of a hearing in which the county's social services department attempted to retain custody of John Joseph Dougherty's three daughters. Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge after police found his brain-damaged wife dead on a mattress, surrounded by moldy food and her own excrement. "Maybe we should be more like Germany or Russia," the...

A grand jury has indicted an Elkton man on a murder charge, six weeks after police found his emaciated wife dead in a bedroom amidst squalid conditions. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge in the indictment, handed up last week after the grand jury heard new evidence against him. Dougherty already faced manslaughter and abuse charges in an indictment handed up March 17. The new indictment, unsealed yesterday, included those charges and added the murder charge. Dougherty is accused of causing his wife's death by keeping her locked in a bedroom for six years without access to...

An Elkton man accused of murdering his brain-damaged wife by keeping her locked in a bedroom regained custody of his three daughters Wednesday. Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. returned the children to John Joseph Dougherty, 53, after a hearing that lasted all afternoon in circuit court. The county's social services department took custody of the children Feb. 25, after police found their mother dead on a mattress amidst squalid conditions in their Chestnut Drive home.

ELKTON - New evidence against an Elkton man accused of locking up the mother of his children for six years until her death has prompted a Cecil County grand jury to increase the charges against him from manslaughter to second-degree murder. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, told authorities that he started keeping Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, in a bedroom in 1999 after she suffered an aneurysm and became verbally aggressive toward their daughters, according to police. He told authorities that he wanted to keep her from wandering around the house. Kilrain did not have access to food, water and hygiene, prosecutors...

U.S. Congressmen Want Russia to Acknowledge Illegal Occupation of Baltics MosNews The House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations has received a resolution project to get an acknowledgement from Russia that its occupation of the Baltic states was illegal. The resolution authors are John Shimkus (R-IL) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). They have urged Russia to make a “clear and unequivocal statement on acknowledgement and condemnation of the illegal occupation and annexation of the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, by the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1991,” Kommersant newspaper wrote. Shimkus and Kucinich head the Baltic Caucus in the U.S....

"I think we ought to let the rhetoric cool off," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Tuesday. Congress returned bubbling with the emotional issues and public policy debates raised by Schiavo's plight. A Senate committee looking at whether the treatment of disabled people such as Schiavo should be better defined was warned by the father of a retarded Kansas man to tread carefully. "Those debates frighten me, and they should alarm you, too," Rud Turnbull of Lawrence, Kan., the father of 37-year-old Jay Turnbull, said in remarks prepared for a Senate Health Committee hearing Wednesday. "The slippery slope...

Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other revolutionaries used accusations of arrogant and heavy-handed tactics to stir a populist revolt against 40 years of Democratic domination of Congress before the GOP takeover of 1994. Now, after 10 years of Republican control, House Democrats are making strikingly similar charges against today's Republicans. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) plans to lash out at the chamber's Republican leaders today with a report accusing them of abusing their power through parliamentary tactics designed to suppress dissent. The report contends that rules governing major legislation "severely restrict or sometimes even totally block the minority's ability...

Reed's Rules The nuclear option, 19th-century style. Flip your television clicker over to C-SPAN's coverage of the House of Representatives and watch the speeches on the floor. View these for any length of time and you will notice a pattern. The chair will announce "The gentleman from so-and-so is recognized for five minutes." If he finishes before the time limit is up, the member will say, "I yield back the balance of my time." If he is not finished, the sharp rap of the speaker's gavel will be heard -- even as the member continues speaking -- and the voice...

ISLAMABAD: In an embarrassing move for Islamabad, a US congressional report has said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents and other American personnel are in Pakistan looking for Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. These agents are based in Pakistan as 'civilian contractors', the Dawn newspaper reported from Washington on Saturday, quoting the Congressional Research Service, which advises Congress and writes policy briefs for US legislators. The report said both bin Laden and Al Zawahiri escaped the December 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan and, "according to most assessments, fled into Pakistan, where they have continued to elude capture...

US President George W Bush has voiced "deep concern" about European plans to lift an arms embargo on China - putting him at odds with the French president. Jacques Chirac insisted the ban was "no longer justified" but said Europe and the US should agree on conditions for lifting it. Earlier, Mr Bush warned that arms transfers to Beijing would "change the balance" of China-Taiwan relations. He was speaking after a Nato summit in Brussels that stressed alliance unity. "There is deep concern in our country that a transfer of weapons would be a transfer of technology to China," Mr...

TRADE-AMERICAS: The 'Green' Promises of CAFTA MEXICO CITY, Feb 17 (IPS) - The ''green'' provisos of the free trade treaty between the United States, five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic say the parties will act in ''good faith'' and will create an Environmental Affairs Council, an arbitration group and perhaps a secretariat. Now these promises are being used as artillery by the treaty's defenders and detractors alike. Saying the trade treaty is pro- or anti-environment is a battlehorse for those debating the eventual ratification this year by the parliaments of the Latin American countries involved (Costa Rica, El...

*Michael, HAVE A HEART !!!!!For Valentines Day give Terri back to her MOM & DAD, The Schindlers!!!!!!!!* The Terri Schindler Schiavo Daily Threads are created month to month as we watch local and national news regarding Terri and her family. Since Terri's supporters are in every time zone, you may see something FIRST. Please share news with us that you don't see here already. Now, why would you want to do that? Terri's Daily Thread for September/October of 2004 was viewed over 15,000 times. Terri's November Daily Thread was viewed over 6,000 times. December's thread is over 3,000 views. January...