ActRight

The GOP governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal has, as Bryan Fischer wrote “has vetoed a religious liberty bill which is about as mild a bill as you can imagine. It would have protected pastors from being

Reports that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry didn't vote in the Lone Star State's Republican presidential primary are further stoking rumors that the onetime Republican presidential candidate is considering running as an independent. While Perry insists that he filled out a ballot and mailed it in "within 72 hours of receiving it," the election administrator in Fayette County — where Perry is registered to vote — says that a "voted ballot was never received" from Perry. If true, that would check off one of two requirements for someone in Texas to run as an independent candidate, the Texas Tribune reports: There are two key requirements in Texas for someone to run as an independent candidate for president. First, a candidate would have had to abstain from voting in one of the state's primaries because doing so would declare themselves as either a Democrat or Republican. Second, a candidate would need to gather 79,939 signatures by May 9 from Texans who had also not voted in either of the primaries that year. [Texas Tribune] Despite reportedly being floated as a possible independent candidate by GOP leaders, Perry maintains that he has no plans to run. He has already endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Republican race and, just last week, Perry's former campaign manager Jeff Miller once again said that Perry's "got no interest in running." Read the full story over at the Texas Tribune. Becca Stanek

Joe Biden has a reputation for saying ridiculous things, which he seems only to cement further with each passing day. The latest edition of Shit Joe Says:

A California lawmaker wants to change a law to make it easier for state prosecutors to go after companies skeptical of global warming. The proposed bill would punish skeptical companies for "many ye

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz oppose a carbon tax, putting them in league with the Republican National Committee on the issue but at odds with some oil companies and economists who view a levy on those heat-trapping emissions as an effective way to combat climate change.

HARRISBURG (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won a case in Pennsylvania's highest court that had challenged his eligibility to appear on the state's GOP primary ballot and serve as president.

The companies are facing pressure from civil rights groups to stay away from the Cleveland convention, given the emergence of Donald J. Trump as the probable nominee.

America will be great again through a strong military and economy.

This comes after nearly two weeks of accusations from Trump himself that Cruz was directly involved.

Tune into Stossel Friday at 9 pm ET on Fox Business Network to watch Gary Johnson, John McAfee, and Austin Petersen debate war, Nazi wedding cakes, and

Trump was scheduled to be in the nation's capital to meet with his foreign policy team, but his appearance at the RNC came as a surprise.

Sen. Harry ?Republicans-are-racist? Reid is facing a chorus of criticism for allegedly encouraging a Muslim Democrat running for a U.S. House seat in Nevada to suspend his campaign last year by telling him he couldn’t win because of his religion. The shocking revelation reveals the Democrats’ fundamental hypocrisy when it comes to race, religion and identity in America, as well as their patronizing contempt for the American voter. The man who once claimed ?racism has been prevalent in Republican politics for decades,? in a floor speech criticizing Donald Trump in December 2015, is allegedly racist. ?A Muslim cannot win this race,? Reid is said to have told Jesse Sbaih, a Muslim-American originally from Jordan. ?You should not run for this office,? he said, according to Sbaih. Reid’s camp denied completely his ever saying such words to Sbaih. ?Jesse Sbaih is a liar and that’s why he is going to lose,? said Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman. But Sbaih was able to

Editor’s Note: In the new issue of National Review, we have a piece by Jay Nordlinger, on what it’s like to have a friend running for president. The friend in question is Ted Cruz. Mr. Nordlinger is expanding that piece this week in Impromptus. For Part I of the series, go here. Where was I? I think Ted and Heidi were just married. Anyway, Ted worked at the Justice Department and at the Federal Trade Commission. Then he was solicitor general of Texas (under the attorney general, Greg Abbott, who would become governor). Frankly, I didn’t know that states had solicitors general until Ted became one. Over the years, he had highs and lows; I had highs and lows. He was at least as good a friend in foul weather as in fair. We talked and talked, usually late at night (though not at Earl Campbell’s, our BBQ joint in Austin). We dreamed and schemed. Most of the scheming revolved around him. He would run for office, no doubt. It was a question of when and what (what office). I wanted to run for office, but how could I? I had nowhere to run, in this sense: In my life, I had lived in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Cambridge, Mass.; Georgetown, D.C.; and the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I’m surprised I never had addresses in Madison and Berkeley. The Republic is safe from me, I like to say. But Ted: He could run, for sure. And I would have the satisfaction of watching him do it. He would be in the arena, and I would be on the sidelines, surely, scribbling. (What do you think I’m doing now?) In 2009, he prepared to run for attorney general. I wrote about him for the first time — in a piece I have linked to already: here. “A Great Reaganite Hope,” I called it. #ad#I spent a couple of paragraphs commenting on the similarities, and dissimilarities, between Ted and the new president. Here is how I concluded those paragraphs: “Obama certainly rose quickly in American politics, very quickly (alas). Can Ted Cruz do the same? I don’t know, but it would be good for the country.” As it happened, the attorney-general race did not come off — because the attorney-general position did not come open. Why? Well, in a nutshell, Kay Bailey Hutchison was supposed to resign from the Senate. Her doing so would have reshuffled the political deck in Texas. But she didn’t. So … Ted went into private practice. I hope he made a lot of money. Because his desire was to go back on a government payroll. In January 2011, he announced for the U.S. Senate. Whuh? The U.S. Senate? But he had never been elected to any political office. The U.S. Senate from Texas, the second-most-populous state in the country? Are you kidding? No. By coincidence, we were in the same town that night — Palo Alto, Calif. We talked late, late into the night. Earlier in the day, I had written a post, “My Candidate in Texas.” I said, “I’ve been waiting for Ted to run for office for a long time. Conservatives all across America will come to embrace him, I think — embrace him as a champion. Why not start early? There will be plenty of bandwagoneers later.” I further said, “I hope he goes to the Senate, and I hope he goes further than that.” Now, Marco Rubio had just been sworn in as a senator. Some people were saying that the race Ted was about to run would be like the one that Marco had just run in Florida. And I wrote, “A nightmare scenario for people like us — I’m talking about Reaganites … — is that Senator Cruz and Senator Rubio compete in a presidential primary. But then, you could call that an embarrassment of riches.” You know, I was thinking 2020, 2024 … Important people told Ted not to bother to run for Senate. He had no money, no name recognition, no network. There were people in line ahead of him — senior politicians — and he should wait his turn. He’d make a fool of himself if he didn’t. I saw him campaign a bit in New York — meaning, at fundraisers. He was good at it. He “connected.” I beat the drums for him a little. I’d never done that kind of work. I enjoyed it. I wanted to see Ted get elected. He was confident he would win. I mean, unwaveringly confident. Over and over, he told me he’d win. And damned if he didn’t. On Election Night, I began a post by quoting a Gershwin song: “They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, when he said the world was round. They all laughed when Edison recorded sound.” The song ends, “Who’s got the last laugh now?” A left-wing journalist wrote me a nasty e-mail, saying, “Columbus didn’t say that! Your friend is an idiot!” He thought I was quoting the candidate, Ted. I was insulted on Ira Gershwin’s behalf. And wistful about a lost popular culture. Before he was sworn in, he told me, “Think of ways we can advance freedom. Think of ways we can defend and advance freedom — score points for freedom, fight for it.” Typical Ted. When he got to the Senate, he made a big splash. Some people didn’t like getting wet. I liked most of what Ted was doing — relished it. Some of it, I did not like. As I’ve said before, we are friends, not clones. A few weeks ago, I took one of my nieces to The King and I. Its greatest song goes, “He will not always say what you would have him say.” Well, sure. Ted has a wider libertarian streak than I do. (Bill Buckley: “Within every conservative is a streak of libertarianism.”) Also, he has less patience for the “establishment” than I do. But, you know? He was the one who got elected, and you know what else? He kept his promises to the voters. Some may not have liked those promises. But, by golly, he kept them. Which is refreshing in a politician. And he did not sit around. Oh, no. He did not mark time. A senator observed, “Ted has done more in a couple of years here than some of our colleagues have done in decades.” I could talk on and on — about drones, Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, and other things. But I’ll knock off for today, because tomorrow, we’re running for president. Well, Ted is — you and I are along for the ride …

Democrats find their first bit of optimism in years, eyeing significant gains.

Donald Trump is not a details guy. From his checkered experience in business, he draws this lesson: “One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper.” Question: Who thinks that Donald Trump actually has read the paper? Asked at a town-hall meeting (which isn’t actually a town-hall meeting, but we insist on calling these dog-and-pony shows that and pretending that they are) to list the top three priorities of the federal government, Trump responded: “Security, security, and security.” That the candidate was stalling for time while his political mind, honed to the fine edge of an old butter knife, ran through the possibilities was to be expected. We are used to his filibustering by now. He was right to identify security as the overriding concern of the U.S. government. #ad#The federal enterprise was created to handle those tasks that are by their nature interstate or national: War, relations with foreign powers, international and interstate trade, immigration, and relations between the states are the reasons it exists. A superior power is required to solve problems that cannot be adjudicated by a single state, such as cooking up an excuse for why Texas must be forced to honor your Massachusetts-issued same-sex-marriage license while Massachusetts has no reciprocal obligation to honor your Texas-issued concealed-carry permit, despite the pesky fact of gun rights actually being right there in the Constitution and all. All right, maybe not the best example. The federal government is necessary because it alone can create and execute a program under which “aid” to foreign governments is laundered back into the pockets of campaign contributors through military-procurement rules. Okay, not a great example, either. But the federal government does something useful, of that we are assured. It’s not like all those thousands of federal factota hived up in Washington do nothing but sit around and masturbate to Internet porn all day. Trump does not oppose big government. He believes that we simply haven’t been doing it right. But the Trumpkin view of all Trumpkin enterprises is expansive, demanding superlatives. And so Trump expanded. Other top federal duties, he declared, included “health care, education . . . and then you can go on from there.” Go on to where? “Housing, providing great neighborhoods.” Anderson Cooper, tasked with the necessary duty of reminding Trump that this contradicts everything he said until five minutes ago, asked: “Aren’t you against the federal government’s involvement in education? Don’t you want it to devolve to states?” Sure, Trump said, but — see if you can make anything of this — we must consider the “concept of the country.” (If that sounds like a cheesy theme hotel, well . . . ) And: “The concept of the country is the concept that we have to have education within the country.” Indeed. Likewise, he rejects the notion of a federally run health-care system, advocating instead a “private” system that is . . . federally run, or, in Trump’s phrasing, led by the federal government, in case you for some reason believe that “led by” and “run by” mean different things when the federal government is involved — which is to say, if you are a credulous rube. One would think that a real-estate man from New York City would have some appreciation of what kind of “great neighborhoods” are created by federal policy, but one suspects that Trump is mainly unfamiliar with those parts of New York between Central Park North and Yankee Stadium. #share#Trump, who until recently supported a Canadian-style government-monopoly health-care system, says that the answer is in competition. He’s partly right about that, but the idea that there is going to be robust competition — strong enough to drive down prices and increase quality — under a system led by the federal government is, forgive me for noticing, exactly the thinking that produced the so-called Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare regime that Trump professes to disdain. Yes, professes: His political donations helped sustain the Democratic politicians who created it. Maybe you believe he is in earnest. Maybe you are a credulous rube. You can believe that a guy whose preferred health-care policy was somewhat to the left of the French model suddenly became a born-again Friedmanite in his seventh decade walking this good green Earth, in much the same way that you can believe that a man who had no moral reservations about the commercial vivisection of human children for the purpose of accommodating sexual convenience suddenly embraced Mother Teresa’s view of abortion at approximately the same politically convenient moment. #related#Trump does not oppose big government. He believes that we simply haven’t been doing it right. Trumpism, like the “true Communism” beloved of Berkeley sophomores, has never been tried. Or so he thinks. Of course it has: in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in Venezuela — and here, under Woodrow Wilson’s “war socialism” and the New Deal, which was little more than Wilsonian war socialism filtered through Franklin Roosevelt’s sense of noblesse oblige. Trump, who has no noblesse to oblige him, is constrained by no philosophy, no principle, and no real knowledge of our constitutional order. To admit that there is something that the federal government under Trump cannot do well is to admit that there is something Trump cannot do well, and Trump cannot endure the thought. Federally run health care? Sure, but it’ll be great this time around. A big ugly federal footprint in education? If you cannot trust Donald Trump and his third-grade reading skills to set education policy, who can you trust? And, of course, expect the classiest housing projects you’ve ever seen, because the government is going to build great neighborhoods. The concept of the country is well-ordered liberty with the necessary evil of a federal government and a presidency that are severely limited in their scope and ambition by provisions written into the Constitution itself. The federal government has enumerated powers, and satisfying Donald Trump’s bloated and cancerous sense of the importance of his own ridiculous person is not one of them. — Kevin D. Williamson is National Review’s roving correspondent.

Ted Cruz holds a wide lead over Donald Trump in Wisconsin less than a week from the state's primary, and Bernie Sanders has a narrow edge over Hillary Clinton, a new Marquette University Law School poll shows.

It was "scalding hot, OK?'

CNN ran a segment documenting how Trump changed his position on abortion three times within three hours. Donald Trump's 3 positions on abortion in 3 hours: CNN's @Phil_Mattingly reports C…

"Democratic" Socialism. What is it really? And does it even work. Read more at http://LouderWithCrowder.com including all sources athttp://louderwithcrowder....

How Breitbart.com, partly funded by a top Ted Cruz donor, became the Texas senator’s media lifeline.

Two low-profile Texas brothers have donated $15 million to support Sen. Ted Cruz, a record-setting contribution that amounts to the largest known donation so far in the 2016 presidential campaign.

On Wednesday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, the usually-friendly talk-show host had Ted Cruz on as his guest and while the interview started out friendly, Kimmel soon made jabs at Cruz for being unlikeable and attacked Cruz’s claims about ObamaCare and radical Islam. When Cruz referred to ObamaCare as a "disaster," Kimmel countered that he hadn’t heard “one” negative story about ObamaCare.

A tight immigration policy and tougher requirements for those who come to Norway are important tools for avoiding radicalisation and parallel societies, Integration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said on Wednesday.

Our new polling paints a grisly picture for the Donald.

Says ?When there?s a majority of people in our state that thinks LGBT rights are an important issue, and thinks that they want representation to do that, it?ll happen? Says First Amendment Allows LGBT To Be Discriminated Due To ?Religious Liberty Nebraska Republican State Senator Bill Kintner had some choice words on talk radio to rationalize his ?