Rick Moran writes at American Thinker:

Republican officials are confident that the presence of thousands of police and federal agents in Cleveland, along with barriers and checkpoints to control traffic will be enough to make the GOP convention opening tonight as safe as can be expected.

The confab will convene amid heightened concerns over security as a result of the terrorist attack in Nice and the targeted assassination of three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge. But it is hoped that the overwhelming show of force by law enforcement will make any troublemakers think twice about disrupting the proceedings.

For information on "how to watch Republican National Convention 2016: Channels, times, livestream, and more," click here. 

Jeff Kuznicki writes at CR:

With zero intention of making light of the powerful rebuke that the Declaration of Independence was of government tyranny back in 1776, there may be a festering bill of particulars against the leadership of the Republican Party, and how their actions have quite possibly ensured decades of Leftist rule in America.

Read more.

After all, writes Jeffrey Lord, what Karl Rove advises -- "the fraternal order timidity of the ever-cautious GOP Establishment -- never ends well for GOP presidents, be they Ford, Bush, or Bush."

"Brilliant," John Nolte writes at Breitbart. "Keep in mind that this is the same GOP Establishment privately and publicly lecturing Trump about 'tone'."

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Alex Pappas reports at the Daily Caller:

Speaker of the House John Boehner is apparently punishing Republicans who voted against his re-election Tuesday, despite previously saying he would not do so. Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent are both losing their seats on the House Rules Committee, Politico reported Tuesday evening. Both Florida Republicans voted for Webster instead of Boehner earlier in the day.

Such moves seem to contradict recent statements made by Boehner and his office. Asked last week if any Republicans who voted against Boehner would be punished, spokesman Michael Steel told The Daily Caller by email: "Boehner has said publicly that there will be no retribution for 'no' votes."

"After being told that we should now all come together and work together, we have been told late today that two of our Congressmen are being taken off of the committee they were on, simply for voting like their voters wanted," Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas is quoted as saying in a statement Tuesday."So, it appears before we can work together, we are now going to have another fight."

Michael Patrick Leahy reports at Breitbart.com:

Best-selling author Brad Thor is expanding the tweet that started a social media firestorm. On Tuesday he sent out this tweet: "Hey @Reince and @GOP - let me be perfectly clear. If Jeb Bush is the nominee, I will never vote Republican again."

"Thor, whose thriller, The Lions of Lucerne, was published in 2002, has written ten additional New York Times best-sellers. His most recent novel, Act of War, was published in 2014, and a new thriller is in the works," Breitbart reports. 

Thor is "not squeamish in detailing the current condition of the United States. 'I believe that the problems facing this country are so dire I don't want someone who is going to kick my dog less'," the best-selling author said, according to Breitbart.

"We don’t need a patrician manager of the big federal  bureaucracy in D.C.," Breitbart quotes Thor as saying. "We need an absolute constitutional warrior, not only someone who is going to whittle this government down to the size it should be, but someone who is able to rally everyone behind him or her. . . . It's more important to put someone in who's going to fix things, not manage its decline."

Neil Munro reports at the Daily Caller:

Press reports say House Speaker John Boehner will ask Rep. Nancy Pelosi to help him overcome “snowballing” GOP opposition to the GOP leadership’s draft 2015 government budget bill.

Boehner’s draft bill funds the entire government for 2015, but makes merely token efforts to stop President Barack Obama’s agencies from implementing his unpopular amnesty, according to rank-and-file GOP legislators. . . .

Daniel Harper reports at Weekly Standard:

Senator Jeff Sessions, who [won] reelection last night in an uncontested race, says last night's Republican victory is a "mandate" to block President Obama's planned executive amnesty. 

"[T]he American people dramatically repudiated the policies of President Obama, Senator Reid, and Leader Pelosi," the Weekly Standard quotes Sessions as saying. "It was also a dramatic affirmation of the policies our GOP candidates campaigned on: controlling spending, balancing the budget, repealing Obamacare, unleashing American energy, and boosting wages through pro-worker reforms."

Session also said, "Republicans in the House and Senate campaigned against the Obama-Senate immigration bill and on the pledge to block President Obama's unlawful executive amnesty. The immediate emergency facing our new majority will be fighting the President's disastrous planned actions, and we will have not only a Constitutional mandate but also a popular mandate to do so."

Sessions concludes: "The last six years of the Obama-Reid majority have been a government of the elites for the elites. Our new GOP Senators will lead the way in returning government to the loyal citizens who sent us here."

From Breitbart TV:

Dr. Ben Carson, author of One Nation, argued that "a lot" of Republican politicians "are just like the Democrats" on Tuesday’s Sean Hannity Show.  

"A lot of them [Republicans] who are running are just like the Democrats," Carson said. "They put the finger in the air and see which way the wind is blowing."

"On Fox News' Cavuto Thursday, talk-radio host Mark Levin ripped into the television network for employing establishment Republican strategist Karl Rove," WND reports.

"Host Neil Cavuto asked Levin for his thoughts on Republican candidates across the nation. 'You look at North Carolina, you look at Arkansas, you look at a number of these states,' Levin said. 'Here’s the big lie that’s going on for election cycle after election cycle, advanced by, among others, Fox favorite Karl Rove'."

Levin continued, according to WND, "The fact of the matter is we've [the GOP] lost the Senate over and over again not because of [former Senate candidate] Todd Akin, not because of two or three or four tea-party candidates. The vast majority of the candidates running are your Republican establishment candidates who've never had to fight in a Republican primary."

Go here to read the entire news report.

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Breitbart reports:

National conservative election integrity organization True The Vote has asked a federal judge to issue a restraining order against the Mississippi Republican Party, alleging that the state GOP may be engaged in the destruction of evidence of alleged voter fraud from the June 24 GOP primary runoff.

"Defendant county commissioners have continued to violate federal law by preventing access to election records. Now, we think we know why," True The Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht said in a statement. "If the affidavits we now have regarding the destruction of election documents and other similarly stunning findings are true, then no Mississippian, no American, can trust the results of this election."

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Steve Deace writes:

There may now be a paper trail that directly links the GOP establishment to the race-baiting attack ads used against tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in his Mississippi U.S. Senate runoff against incumbent Thad Cochran.

Independent investigative journalist Charles C. Johnson has been leading the way in digging into the details of exactly who was responsible for race-baiting black Democrat voters to infiltrate a Republican Party primary runoff and save Cochran from losing his seat, and how they did it.

But now he’s been joined by Jeffrey Lord of the American Spectator, who was the former political director for the Reagan White House in the 1980s.

Also, as noted in this space yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz has already weighed in, saying to talk show radio host Mark Levin, "These allegations need to be vigorously investigated, and anyone involved in criminal conduct should be prosecuted. The voters of Mississippi deserve to know the truth."

Read more at Barbwire.

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Coulter writes:

Citing surveys from the Pew Research Center, the Pew Hispanic Center, Gallup, NBC News, Harris polling, the Annenberg Policy Center, Latino Decisions, the Center for Immigration Studies and the Hudson Institute, Schlafly’s report overwhelmingly demonstrates that merely continuing our current immigration policies spells doom for the Republican Party. . . .

Consider the following issues (quoting Coulter):

Proud to be an American? "According to a Harris poll, 81 percent of native-born citizens think the schools should teach students to be proud of being American. Only 50 percent of naturalized U.S. citizens do."

Constitution vs. International Law: "While 67 percent of native-born Americans believe our Constitution is a higher legal authority than international law, only 37 percent of naturalized citizens agree."

Obamacare: "According the 2012 National Asian American Survey, as well as a Kaiser Foundation poll, only 40 percent of the general public holds a favorable opinion of Obamacare, 42 percent unfavorable. Meanwhile, 51 percent of Asians have a favorable opinion of Obamacare, 18 percent an unfavorable one. Even Koreans support Obamacare by 57 percent to 17 percent."

Capitalism: "A Pew Research Center poll of all Hispanics, immigrant and citizen alike, found that Hispanics take a dimmer view of capitalism than even people who describe themselves as 'liberal Democrats.' While 47 percent of self-described 'liberal Democrats' hold a negative view of capitalism, 55 percent of Hispanics do."

Gun Rights: "Pew also found that only 27 percent of Hispanics support gun rights, compared to 57 percent of non-Hispanic whites. According to Latino Decisions, large majorities of Hispanics favor a national database of gun owners, limiting the capacity of magazines and a ban on semiautomatic weapons."

Big Government: "Seventy-five percent of Hispanic immigrants and 55 percent of Asian immigrants support bigger government -- also according to Pew. Even after three generations in America, Hispanics still support bigger government 55 percent to 36 percent, compared to the general public, which opposes bigger government 48 percent to 41 percent."

"Immigrants -- all immigrants -- have always been the bulwark of the Democratic Party," Coulter writes. "For one thing, recent arrivals tend to be poor and in need of government assistance. Also, they’re coming from societies that are far more left-wing than our own. History shows that, rather than fleeing those policies, they bring their cultures with them. (Look at what New Yorkers did to Vermont.)

"This is not a secret," Coulter continues. "For at least a century, there’s never been a period when a majority of immigrants weren’t Democrats."

The upshot: "At the current accelerated rate of immigration -- 1.1 million new immigrants every year -- Republicans will be a fringe party in about a decade."

If this analysis is correct, more is at stake here than the prospects of a political party. For America herself, as a land of freedom and human dignity, may be stumbling, even crashing, into her sickbed. 

Not because of immigrants per se, but because no society can sustain human freedom without a vision of freedom, verified and rooted in reality, that gives an adequate basis for human freedom and dignity.

If there is no rock of freedom, there can be no house of freedom built upon that rock.

The Democrats reject this basis, given their clear and ideological opposition to the rules of freedom as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Their preachers say, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Washington, and all these things shall be added unto you." But theirs is a kingdom of slavery.

And the Republicans? Their leadership seems clueless, double-minded, and incredibly easy to co-opt. Theirs is a kingdom of confusion ripe for the taking. They would hold onto power. Freedom not so much.

The answer, if one comes, will not come from Washington and certainly not from the current GOP. The answer, if it comes, will come from the people, under God, who having grabbed ahold of the rules of freedom, run with all of their might toward the open spaces and fertile soil of the Promised Land. 

It's never to late to discover America again, even America the young, in the brightness of a new day. This doesn't mean easy times are ahead. It does mean there is a way homeward. With a living Creator as the source of unalienable rights, neither death, decay, or unfreedom has the final say.

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William Sullivan writes at American Thinker: 

Anthony Weiner recently lamented that "if the internet didn't exist," he'd be the mayor of New York. In other words, if John Q. Public weren't so privy to the facts, and so readily able to investigate those facts and exchange opinions about them online, politicians could more easily manipulate their political images and determine the outcome of elections.

Likewise, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is now feeling the stinging disapproval of an informed public that he may not have felt twenty years ago. Like the grand reveal at the end a Scooby-Doo episode, McConnell the "fiscally conservative" Senate leader has been unmasked in the last month's proceedings and identified as what he really is -- a career politician who'd sell his constituents and American taxpayers down the river for a buck (or in this case, a couple billion bucks). And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for meddling Matt Drudge and the like. . . .

The Washington Times reports:

Nearly a hundred top Republican donors and Bush administration officials sent a letter to the House GOP on Tuesday urging lawmakers to pass a bill that legalizes illegal immigrants, arguing that the current system is already allowing them to stay and so it makes sense to register them and bring them into the system.

The donors, led by former Bush administration Cabinet officials Carlos Gutierrez and Spencer Abraham, also said that immigrants are potential Republican voters who can be won over -- if the party can be seen as welcoming to immigrants. . . .

Also signing Tuesday’s donor letter were Karl Rove, who was Mr. Bush’s political adviser; a number of ambassadors who served Mr. Bush; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; former Vice President Dan Quayle; and several former governors.

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Bosch Fawstin writes at Frontpagemag.com:

"Phony scandals," Mr. President? No, your scandals are as real as can be, it’s the GOP’s investigations into them that are phony.

Speaker of the House John Boehner has refused to appoint a special prosecutor to the Benghazi massacre investigation. Why? Because he made a deal with Obama? Because he simply doesn’t give a d---? Whatever the reason, he’s obstructing the ability to get to the bottom of it once and for all.

When the IRS scandal hit, Boehner came out to the media and burped out, "Who’s going to jail?" He’s done nothing to answer his own question. . . .

Not only do we have the most lawless administration in American history at this moment in time, but we have the most gutless opposition a party in power has ever had. The only way we can get to the bottom of these scandals is if the next midterms replace the current Republican leadership with those who understand what’s at stake and who are willing to fight the b------- in both parties, tooth and nail. No more phony leadership.

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Tony Lee writes at Breitbart:

Critics claim it is heavy on process, metrics, and outreach to celebrities and minorities while being short on conservative substance -- which, they fear, would ensure more Mitt Romneys are nominated over insurgent Tea Party and grassroots candidates like Ted Cruz.

"Here is a rule of politics which just does not change, ever: When Republicans distinguish themselves from Democrats, they almost always win, and when they don't, they almost always lose," Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica, is quoted as saying.

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Limbaugh writes:

The Republican Party must remain the party of mainstream Reagan conservatism rather than try to become a diluted version of the Democratic Party.

This does not mean Republicans can't come up with creative policy solutions when advisable, but it does mean that conservatism is based on timeless principles that require no major revisions.

Conservatives are champions of freedom, the rule of law and enforcement of the social compact between government and the people enshrined in the Constitution, which imposes limitations on government in order to maximize our liberties.

If we reject these ideas, then we have turned our backs on what America means and what has made America unique. What's the point of winning elections if the price is American exceptionalism?

Limbaugh cautions particularly against the "movement inside the Republican Party to abandon social conservatism."

That is "nothing short of a political death wish," he concludes. "Denying it will not alter the reality."

My view: The current GOP, under Republican establishment leadership, is in a death spiral. It may be a drawn-out death spiral, but it is a death spiral nevertheless.

Unfortunately, this same leadership appears to lack the perspective needed to know it is in the midst of a swirling downward turn. Their pragmatism is divorced from the rules of liberty and therefore is not working -- if the goal of the GOP is to move forward on the basis of Declaration ideals and content.

Should the GOP die (which is not inconsistent with the continuation of a party apparatus), the last person to know the GOP is dead may be House Speaker John Boehner.

It is quite possible he and his team do not know, and may never know, what is hitting every day right between the eyes. This does not mean they are bad people; it suggests, however, they do not understand the present struggle.  

As a matter of prudence, I recommend groups and individuals knowingly committed to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, a) to gameplan how the forces of liberty can rescue the GOP from itself -- with very significant progress in this before the mid-term elections, and then with steady, increasing progress after that; and b) to gameplan, at the same time, in case of the imminent collapse of the GOP, the formation of a new party and new coalition to articulate, defend, and advance to rule of freedom in America -- all of this resting firmly upon the vision for freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence. A house, party, or nation divided cannot stand.

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Susan Jones reports at CNSNews.com:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is among the "munchkin" Republicans who are afraid of alienating women by opposing reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin said Wednesday night.

Levin blasted Cantor for "going to war" with conservatives by pressing them to support the Democrats' version of the bill.

"Eric Cantor is the number-two Republican in the House," Levin is quoted as saying. "He's the majority leader because we, the conservatives, made him the majority leader. We gave them the House of Representatives. Now he's passing a piece of ultra left-wing trash, dressed up as a violence against women law, which is a disaster, and threatening conservatives who want to kill it."

According to CNSNews, Levin also said, "We are not fooled by the title on this law," and "we are not fooled that aspects of it are unconstitutional and were ruled unconstitutional in the year 2000. And we are not fooled by the breadth of this law, which includes people who are not women, which confers jurisdiction in some cases to Indian tribes, which expands immigration for more illegal immigrants; and which has such ambiguous and vague language as 'emotional distress' or 'using unpleasant speech'."

CNSNews also reports that Levin said the "Violence Against Women Act is also the violence against men act, because it extends protections to homosexuals. 'You better keep that in mind. Because Eric Cantor is going to war with us. Mr.Cantor, I hate to tell you this: We're already in political war with you'."

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Neil W. McCabe writes at Human Events:

As Karl Rove plans to block conservatives in GOP primaries, an architect of modern conservatism offers a $10,000 prize for the best plan for the conservative takeover of the party.

"The Liberty Prize" will go to the grassroots conservative, who creates the best blueprint or ideas for conservatives to take control of the Republican Party, win the 2016 election and then govern America by January 2017, said Richard A. Viguerie, the chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.

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