Free Republic

On MSNBC last night, host Alex Wagner continued her ongoing “leave the IRS alone” theme with a defense of the organization and its key players that tread into the territory of virtuosity in the art of reversing the spin. Not only, Wagner would have you believe, is the IRS not guilty of anything, not only were conservative groups not harmed or hampered in any way, but in fact it is the IRS who is truly the victim of unjust targeting. They are not the aggressor but the innocent victim, the simple, plainspoken agency that gosh darnit just wants to do...

The IRS’ Washington, D.C. headquarters targeted conservative groups in part due to pressure from Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, according to emails obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch and reviewed by The Daily Caller. Levin, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ permanent subcommittee on investigations, wrote a March 30, 2012 letter to then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman discussing the “urgency” of the issue of possible political activity by nonprofit applicants. Levin asked if the IRS was sending out additional information requests to applicant groups and citing an IRS rejection letter to a conservative group as an example of...

You can’t put a price on happiness, but the cost of outrage is easy enough to tally. The Republican Party’s 16-day temper tantrum over Obamacare shuttered large parts of the U.S. government and left 800,000 civil servants sitting at home without pay. In the Washington area alone, that translated to $217 million a day in lost wages. More than $3 billion of direct government spending on services went by the wayside. Analysts predict the knock-on effects will shave about 0.5 per cent off the country’s fourth-quarter GDP growth—a total hit in the $20-billion to $24-billion range. And Republicans are now...

Last Saturday, Renee Ellmers (R-NC02) — a 2010 Tea Party favorite who has since lost the support of conservatives — gave a brief speech to the Moore County, North Carolina GOP Convention. During the speech, she claimed to hold the same views on immigration as Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and even Dr. Ben Carson. This statement came a few days after Ellmers’ tendentious appearance with Laura Ingraham last week — an interview that might have progressed smoothly had Ellmers actually expressed the same views on immigration as those four. Ellmers’ brief speech in Moore County offered no specification backing her...

Catherine Engelbrecht became the face of the IRS scandal with her riveting testimony before Congress on how her group True the Vote was targeted by the IRS for selective persecution and harassment. Recently, it was discovered that Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings had a hand in the IRS targeting True the Vote. You might remember Cummings as the grandstanding Democrat who railed against Darrell Issa’s investigation of the scandal after a Congressional hearing with IRS official Lois Lerner had closed (and then implied that Issa was racist): Further making the situation ironic and unsightly for justice-avoiding Democrats is that emails show...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Patty Murray, senator from Washington, on the Senate floor yesterday urged people to stop listening to me 'cause I am, along with Fox News, part of the cabal spreading lies about all these people who are suffering after Obamacare. She says like Harry Reid, it's all lies. There are no problems. Nobody's having a problem. Nobody's been cancelled. Nobody. Harry Reid's actually out there and said that: It's all lies. Here grab the sound bite. This is Patty Murray on the Senate floor speaking about Obamacare yesterday. MURRAY: I hope that everybody can turn off the Fox...

Barack Obama has already done great damage to this country. He will do much more damage over the next four years John Galt Calling: Had Enough? By Doug Patton Thursday, November 8, 2012 “They believe in free stuff. We believe in free people.” - U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, 2012 vice presidential nominee When I heard Congressman Ryan utter those words during his speech to the Republican National Convention in Tampa last summer, I thought they would define the 2012 race for the White House. No statement so clearly describes the deep division between the earners and the takers in...

...One year after the Republican-controlled Legislature curtailed collective bargaining for most public-sector workers, thousands of pro-labor demonstrators converged Saturday on the Capitol in a "Reclaim Wisconsin March." They sang songs, listened to speeches and chanted, "This is what democracy looks like," an echo of the demonstrations that clogged the Capitol during the height of last year's protests ... Saturday's crowd wasn't as large as the throngs that showed up a year ago, but on a bright, sunny, springlike afternoon, enthusiasm was high during an event that amounted to a kickoff for an expected season of recall elections. "It's more of...

Jared Polis really doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. If you saw the Colorado congressman speaking on the House floor last month wearing a clip-on bowtie with a polo shirt under his blazer, you know what I’m talking about. He’s been this way since he first emerged on the scene. About 10 years ago, when he was just 28, Polis was one of four wealthy Colorado Democrats who pooled their considerable personal resources to create a state-of-the-art political machine that was ruthlessly effective in turning this once-red heartland state a stunning shade of blue. But Polis wouldn’t run with that...

During a hearing of the House Oversight Committee into allegations that the Internal Revenue Service scrutinized conservative groups’ tax-exempt status filings unduly, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) exploded at Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (D-CA). Cummings charged that the way in which the proceedings were being conducted were “Un-American.” In apparent protest, Issa then walked out of the committee hearing. While making a statement before the committee, Issa stood up and asked Cummings to yield. “If you will sit down and allow me to ask a question,” Cummings insisted. “I am a member of a Congress of the United States of...

In an election that Republicans want to make all about President Barack Obama, the White House is determined to make him all but disappear in the battleground states that matter. The White House is putting the finishing touches on a post-Labor Day schedule that will send the president to states where he’s still popular, such as: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, Obama officials and Democratic operatives said this week.

'Not Evil Just Wrong' Puts Human Face on 'Disastrous' Effects of Green Policies By David Weigel 10/14/09 6:00 AM noteviljustwrong.com On October 7, Phelim McAleer joined the Society of Environmental Journalists. Three days later, he took advantage of his new membership to attend former Vice President Al Gore’s speech to the group in Madison, Wis., and to rush up to the microphone afterward to ask a question. Reading from a small scrap of paper, an assistant filming the whole thing, McAleer asked Gore about a court case brought by British parents who challenged the veracity of nine facts in Gore’s...

April 11, 2014 Elijah Cummings accuses Darrell Issa of 'scuttling' chance to have Lois Lerner testify Joel Gehrke Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., accused House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., of "scuttling" an opportunity to have former IRS official Lois Lerner testify about the targeting of conservative groups, a charge Issa's team attributes to dishonest statements from Lerner's attorney.Cummings told Issa that Lerner would have testified if the hearing had been delayed one week, from March 5 to March 12, so she would have more time to prepare. But her attorney pulled her out of the hearing...

The language of budget cuts, austerity, and sequestration seem to dominate the media's landscape these days, instilling fear into Americans of vital government services being cut and chaos ensuing if governments aren't allowed to spend and borrow infinitely. Conservatives decry supposed cuts to the military-industrial-complex, and liberals bemoan that without government welfare transfer programs, there would be social Darwinism. ... Leaving aside the details on whether the U.S. budget is actually shrinking, one needs to look no further than the city of Detroit to find the spontaneous order, civic cooperation, and peaceful market forces that take over when government simply...

MADISON, Wis. – Political activist Eric O’Keefe told the Wall Street Journal he’d been subpoenaed in a Democrat-led John Doe investigation of Wisconsin conservatives. That simple act of speech could land O’Keefe, director of conservative advocacy group Wisconsin Club for Growth, in jail. Under Wisconsin law, individuals who violate the state’s John Doe secrecy oath may be held in contempt of court. A legal expert familiar with the investigation says chances are good Bruce Landgraf, the Milwaukee County assistant district attorney who launched the investigation, will go after O’Keefe. “(The prosecutor) wants to conduct his program without any interference. I...

Enabling an IRS witch-hunt By Post Editorial Board April 13, 2014 | 9:25pm Elijah Cummings was his characteristically restrained self last week when he accused Republicans who voted to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of putting themselves “on the same page of history books with [Joe] McCarthy.” From the start of the investigations into the IRS targeting of conservative organizations, Cummings has accused Republicans of a witch-hunt. But recently unearthed e-mails highlight his own involvement with the IRS, contradicting his earlier denials. During hearings back in February, Cummings objected to testimony from the founder and lawyer for...

LANSING, Mich. – Today Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, introduced the first of two bills to enact a patient-centered healthcare plan to provide a free market alternative that expands access to quality care without expanding government. SB 459 provides the regulatory infrastructure that would enable a low cost, high quality care, free market environment within the confines of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second bill, which will be introduced shortly, would convert current Medicaid enrollees to low cost, high quality Qualified Health Plans featuring Direct Primary Care Services and High Deductible Health Plans wrapped within a Health Savings Account. The...

At the T E A PARTY, a black man, Dr. Donald May delivered this message from the courthouse steps in Lubbock. He electrified the audience like I haven't seen in a long time. His delivery was masterful. I am sorry you could not see him in action. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy his words. The news media was there, but not one word of this mans appearance ever appeared on TV or in print, even though he completely dominated the scene. Ralph McLaughlin This is A Time For Courage April 15, 2009 – 11:49 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ladies and gentlemen,...

Blowing SmokeWith a politically incorrect puff, Mark Block lights up the presidential race. As I strolled up First Street, I spotted him immediately. Mark Block, as he likes to say, was “being Block.”He was smoking.To be exact, he was puffing a Marlboro Light. And like most in Washington, he was doing it outside on a Wednesday afternoon, banished from the indoors.As Block paced, a drizzle began. Others took cover. Block lit up another cigarette, gripping an iPhone to his ear as he circled his campaign papers, which were piled in binders on the pavement.When the drops fell harder, he picked...

I finally understand why Elijah Cummings wanted so badly to persecute Catherine Engelbrecht. And as far as democrats go, it's lies all around. True the Vote is a organization made up of volunteers who are interested in preventing voter fraud. Our initiatives include: •Mobilizing and training volunteers who are willing to work as election monitors •Aggressively pursuing fraud reports to ensure prosecution when appropriate •Providing a support system for our volunteers that includes live and online training, quick reference guides, a call bank to phone in problem reports, information on videotaping at polling places, and security as necessary •Creating documentaries...