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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-CA) said during a Thursday House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing that illegal aliens residing in her district were her “constituents.” Ocasio-Cortez, who led with a quote from Kansas Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, asked Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross about his plan to add a “citizenship question” to the 2020 U.S. Census when she made the remarks about illegal aliens being her constituents. “Mr. Kobach later emailed to you on July 14 writing that the lack of the citizenship question ‘leads to the problem that aliens who do not actually reside in the United States...

Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs. “Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times. Indeed, Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’” where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the...

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) told Fox News on Thursday that his constituents want the GOP to rally behind President Donald Trump and move forward with his agenda, because that’s why they voted for the president. “This is about people like from my district, who swung 20 points for Donald Trump and helped him win Wisconsin. It’s people at my town hall who go, ‘listen, President Trump’s imperfect, and yeah, I see why people are frustrated with him, but in the end, the things he’s talking about - reducing regulation and the Trump agenda is what’s going to help my family...

You cannot make this stuff up! Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge (Ohio), at a town meeting hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, lectured the black audience for what she called complaining. She spoke in a “you should be ashamed of yourself” tone that would make one feel guilty for complaining. How can they be so ungrateful for all the good things that the Democrats are doing for the black community? I hope you will spend this much time with your local elected officials. I guarantee you most people in this room have not done that. With your school board, with your...

The competition to be the next Ted Cruz is extremely hot within the Republican Party, where a number of emerging challengers are hoping to capitalize on the newest brand name in conservative politics.In Kansas,Milton R. Wolf opened his fundraising pitch to supporters last week by asking them whether he could be the next Cruz candidate. In Mississippi,Chris McDaniel announced his campaign to unseat Sen. Thad Cochran last week and welcomed the comparison to Mr. Cruz, calling it “a compliment.”hen there’s Ben Sasse,a university president running for Nebraska’s U.S. Senate seat,who set state fundraising records by opposing Obamacare. He told the...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in an interview that aired Sunday dismissed criticism from his congressional colleagues, saying that he was "not remotely" upset that party leaders had chastised him over a legislative strategy many believe forced the 16-day government shutdown. "I don’t work for the party bosses in Washington. I work for the people of Texas, and I fight for them,” Cruz told CNN's "State of the Union." “Look, the reason people are frustrated all over the country is that far too many people get elected and they think they’re there to be part of the club,” he continued. Cruz...

In recent weeks, as the government shutdown loomed and then became reality, Andy Barr's 6th District constituents have had plenty to say about it. Researchers at the University of Kentucky have pointed out that stopping, or cutting, the federal investment in their work is shortsighted, at best. Advocates for poor children who depend upon food stamps have warned about the dire consequences of condemning them to hunger and malnutrition. Employees at the Federal Detention Center in Lexington have pointed out that they stayed on the job, not knowing if they would ever be paid, to keep us all safe. Hundreds...

Many freshman Democrats in the House are defying Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and not voting with the party on key issues. They told Politico they are there to represent their constituents and not make big points with House leadership. Dan Maffei (D-NY) has voted less with his party than any other freshman Democrat. He voted with Republicans to delay the mandates in Obamacare for one year. Fourteen of his colleagues joined him and Pelosi accused them of undermining her. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (D-FL) took to the House floor to attack the defectors, but Maffei does not regret his actions:...

InstaPoll: We Want To Hear From You! What is your reaction to last night's State of the Union address? I Agree with the President's Remarks I Disagree with the President's Remarks I Need More Details from the President Please provide any additional comments or reactions to the State of Union below. *By answering this survey, you are subscribing to my newsletter.

On Friday, President Obama asked Congress for greater power to do something. Before you talk about hell freezing over, consider that his request adheres to Republicans' "smaller government" talking point. Seeking to streamline the government, save money and eliminate duplicative services, the president wants to merge six federal departments and agencies into one. But instead of restructuring items usually on the GOP hit list, like education, Medicare and social safety net programs, he wants to consolidate agencies that handle trade and commerce. The organizations in question are the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade...

We Stand for Principle Over Politicsand the Establishment Can't Stand It December 21, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the...

Forty two years ago, Oakland mayor-to-be Jean Quan was a U.C. Berkeley student-activist rallying for a movement dubbed the Third World Liberation Front of 1969. That movement would later give birth to the university's Ethnic Studies Department and influence universities across the country to integrate such a unique discipline. The department studies represent the history and experiences of marginalized people, especially people of color. Quan went on to become many things: union organizer, Oakland Board of Education member, Oakland City Council member, Chabot Space & Science Center board chair. As she tells on her own website jeanquan.org, in the beginning...

ATLANTA -- Police in Atlanta are hunting several suspects who posed as FBI agents Saturday to rob and shoot a man, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The unidentified victim was leaving his Atlanta apartment with a woman at around 10:30am local time when he was approached by several men in the building's parking lot, police said.

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Sheila Jackson-Lee arrived around 6:00 last night; Congressman Al Green made an appearance about 20 minutes later. Al was pretty cool & quite friendly as he strolled into the restaurant entrance….alone. He stayed until 6:45 pm and strolled past us…alone… heading east on Dallas towards Louisiana. Sheila’s handlers however, (especially the woman in the yellow skirt suit) looked at us with absolute disgust and disdain. By my estimate 40-50 people turned out to contribute money to a 16 YEAR Congressional incumbents’ re-election campaign less than one week before early voting begins in Houston. Pathetic if you ask me.

Earlier today, a video hit the internet of Texas Democrat Rep. Ciro Rodriguez losing his temper with a constituent. Here’s another home video of Rodriguez at a town hall meeting conducted at a restaurant. In this video, he’s caught swearing at a constituent while rationalizing robocalls.

A purported rationale for a summer recess in the congressional session has been to give members a chance to reconnect with constituents. A time-honored tradition for accomplishing this reconnect has been the so-called “town hall” meeting. The open format enables a congressman to achieve efficiencies of scale by answering a question or concern held by many at one time and place. Democratic leaders are advising Party members to skip this type meeting this summer. “We did this last year,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) said. “We got hammered with angry demands that we not pass the health care bill. That...

A recent Free Press article noted that Rep. Tim Walz doesn’t “dispute that a majority of Americans are opposed to the (health care) bill or at least highly skeptical.” Now, let me get this straight: We elected Walz to represent us, we pay his salary through our rising taxes, and yet he is planning to vote against our wishes. How can that be? Does he not understand what his title means? A “representative” is to act in the stead of another. The article then goes on to quote Walz: “The day after we pass it, the sun will rise.” Now,...

A select group of southern Minnesota residents will have the chance to question the nation's health and human services secretary about health care reform. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius plans to join Democratic Congressman Tim Walz by phone for a town hall-type meeting Tuesday evening. The hour-long session is open to 1,000 callers who live in Walz's southern Minnesota district. The second-term congressman is due to hold an in-person town hall meeting on Thursday in Mankato.

« Kepler’s dust cover has now been jettisoned, meaning the search for extrasolar ‘Earths’ is not long from commencing. The cover stayed in place for so long because the spacecraft’s photometer had to make measurements of electronic noise that will later have to be removed from the science data. Mission engineers will now continue with the calibration process for several weeks using images of actual stars. Our debates over the ‘rare Earth’ hypothesis will be getting firm data in short order because of Kepler. Three years from now, having had time to detect terrestrial-class planets in the habitable zone...