Free Republic

Many have claimed the federal government was playing fast and loose with the rules surrounding its takeover of General Motors and the circumstances surrounding the selection of which dealerships would remain open and those that wouldn't. Fox News' Gretchen Carlson came forward with evidence of this through a personal account of dealership closings. Carlson, a co-host on the Fox News Channel's morning show "Fox & Friends," appeared on Glenn Beck's June 9 program and questioned the logic behind the decision reached by the government and General Motors (GM) to close down a dealership that has been in her family for...

Many have claimed the federal government was playing fast and loose with the rules surrounding its takeover of General Motors and the circumstances surrounding the selection of which dealerships would remain open and those that wouldn't. Fox News' Gretchen Carlson came forward with evidence of this through a personal account of dealership closings.Carlson, a co-host on the Fox News Channel's morning show "Fox & Friends," appeared on Glenn Beck's June 9 program and questioned the logic behind the decision reached by the government and General Motors (GM) to close down a dealership that has been in her family for 90...

In a feministic attempt to be hip, the Hillary Clinton campaign decided to do something “fun” and ask Democratic senators – all female of course – to hold up signs with their answers to questions about the Democratic presidential candidate front-runner.  It’s sort of like, remember how Michelle Obama held a sign with the #bringbackourgirls in an effort to “fight back” at the terrorist group Boko Haram that kidnapped hundreds of girls from a Nigerian school? As if that would make any difference at all.  This entire exercise is sort of like that, only much lamer. Besides, what better way...

MINNEAPOLIS, - Minnesota's senior Senate representative wasn't always so experienced. In fact, in 2007 a curious wardrobe malfunction marked her rookie year in Washington, D.C. In her new memoir, "The Senator Next Door: A Memoir From the Heartland," Sen. Amy Klobuchar recalls the embarrassing moment when she presided over the U.S. Senate -- just months into her freshman term -- and received a hand-written message while she stood at the dais. "I got an anonymous note passed through a Senate page that read, 'Senator Klobuchar, pull up your shirt, your cleavage is showing,'" she wrote. Although she described the day...

What do we need in this country right now? If you’re a Senate Democrat, you might think the answer is more Muslims. On Thursday, a group of Senators made the case for increased refugee resettlement, posing it as a moral obligation. “While the United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, we must also dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement,” said 14 lawmakers headed by Dick Durbin of Illinois and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. The UN has been trying to get the United States to take in more refugees from...

Democrats have a very different understanding of national security than Americans.Americans think we should improve national security by keeping ISIS in. Democrats think importing the Syrian Civil War here is a national security imperative.They warn us that, “We cannot expect countries hosting Syrian refugees to continue shouldering such a disproportionate burden if the United States and other industrialized countries do not begin resettling many more Syrian refugees.”It’s as if Jordan and Lebanon are doing us some kind of favor by ‘hosting’ their own fellow Arab Muslims.Besides we didn’t take in Jews during WW2. Now we have to make up for...

Twenty-seven senators want President Obama to block federal agencies and contractors from asking job applicants about prior criminal convictions. The senators, including 26 Democrats and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), want Obama to take executive action to "ban the box," referring to a question on job applications that asks if an applicant has any convictions. "We ask you to require federal contractors and agencies to refrain from asking job applicants about prior convictions until later in the hiring process," they said in a letter to Obama on Monday. "This policy would eliminate unnecessary barriers to employment for all job...

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) want every state to offer same-day voter registration for federal elections. The Democratic senators have reintroduced the Same Day Registration Act, which would require states to allow voters to register on the day of an election. Ten states, plus the District of Columbia, currently allow eligible voters to do so, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In addition, the group notes that Illinois is expected to implement statewide same-day voter registration later this year. Advocates argue it can help increase voter turnout, while opponents say it increases the chances for...

The repeal of ObamaCare is the priority of the Republican party, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday. “There will be a vote on repeal. The president, in the White House, will veto that,” he said of the symbolic gesture offered by GOP lawmakers still unsatisfied with the healthcare legislation. However, Barrasso told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that there would also be other bills that strike at other parts of the Affordable Care Act – some of which have gained bipartisan support – including a repeal of the medical device tax and the employer mandate. There is...

Six moderate Democratic senators are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give states more time to comply with its climate rule for power plants. The moderate Democrats said that states should be responsible for developing their own “glide paths” toward the 2030 goal. The senators signing the letter were Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.).

p>The Talk Shows September 14th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): White House chief of staff Denis McDonough; Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C; Michael Hayden, a former CIA and National Security Agency director.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): McDonough; former Secretary of State James Baker; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.FACE THE NATION (CBS): McDonough; Secretary of State John Kerry; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.THIS WEEK (ABC): McDonough; Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Education Secretary Arne Duncan.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): McDonough; Harkin; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Rep. John...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

During a town hall-style agricultural symposium in Mankato, Minn., on Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers were left speechless after a citizen asked a very simple question about Obamacare.Screengrab via KEYC-TV The question: “I thought the Affordable Care Act would save $2500 per family. What happened?”Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tim Walz, both of Minnesota, seemingly didn’t know how to respond. In fact, the room erupted in laughter after the two just stared at each other. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who also attended the meeting, was the only one prepared to respond.“I voted ‘no’, so I’ll let these guys handle that,” he said,...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that the Justice Department had a tough choice in deciding whether to bring federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. A former prosecutor, Klobuchar said that the department would need to wait until their investigation collected all the evidence they could. “I know that investigation’s going on. As a former prosecutor, I know you wait until you see all the evidence,” Klobuchar said on ABC’s “This Week.” “They’re going to have to make that decision. It’ll be a tough one.” (snip) On “This Week,” Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) called the verdict “devastating.” “I just...

A freshman state legislator joined a Republican field seeking a U.S. Senate seat Thursday, setting his sights on a robust Minnesota network for presidential candidate Ron Paul as a possible route to the party nomination. State Rep. Kurt Bills announced his campaign on a busy intersection in Rosemount, just up the street from a high school where he teaches an early morning economics course before heading to the state Capitol each day. The former city council member said he'd make the nation's debt and deficit the focus of his campaign, though he wouldn't offer hints of how he'd solve it....

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Wednesday definitively ruled out a 2012 campaign for the U.S. Senate after ending his Republican bid for the White House a few days ago. Some Republicans, including state GOP chairman Tony Sutton, were hoping Pawlenty would get right back into the ring and take on freshman Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar next year. "I don't know what I will be doing next," Pawlenty said in an email to The Associated Press. "However, I will not be running against Amy in 2012."

Record labels are clamoring for a chance to have their artist lip-synch alongside 16-year-old YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill in, of all places, his bedroom. But could a proposed amendment to the federal copyright infringement law potentially land Cahill, or any person lip-synching copyrighted material in a YouTube video, behind bars? Senate Bill 978, a bipartisan measure introduced last month by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), is backed by supporters who say it closes glaring loopholes in current copyright infringement law created by the realities of the digital age. “As technology rapidly evolves,...

The 18 Senators Who Approve Breaking The Internet To Protect Hollywood from the not-cool dept Last fall, we noted that the Senate Judiciary Committee had unanimously voted to approve COICA, a bill for censoring the internet as a favor to the entertainment industry. Thankfully, Senator Ron Wyden stepped up and blocked COICA from progressing. This year, COICA has been replaced by the PROTECT IP Act, which fixes some of the problems of COICA, but introduces significant other problems as well. A wide cross section of people who actually understand technology and innovation have come out against PROTECT IP as written...

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is the lead player in a legislative effort, already endorsed by a handful of other senators, that would spend $60 million to develop a program that would charge consumers for the costs of installing drunk-driving interlock devices in vehicles. The proposal, S.510, was introduced this week in the U.S. Senate by Udall, who was joined by Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Al Franken, D-Minn., Amy Klobuchar D-Minn., West John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The legislation actually doesn't call for the technology to be installed in...