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(Credit: Gage Skidmore) On Monday, Kentucky's Rand Paul became the first US Senator to vote against an FBI director's nomination since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972. Lifting the hold Rand Paul had placed on nominee James Comey's confirmation over the legal justifications used for domestic use of drones -- otherwise known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles -- for surveillance, a vote was held. The nominee was eventually confirmed 93-1. Paul voted against him and Oregon's Democratic U.S. Senator

Detroit's bankruptcy has been all over the news recently. While there all sorts of theories as to why or how this happened, that there was one magic bullet that could have saved the city, the truth is much more complex. Detroit did not wake up one morning and realize that bankruptcy was upon it. It has been a process years, decades in the making. While a confluence of events have led to it, one reason is greater than all of the others. Detroit residents allowed this to happen.In so many articles

Justin Amash // Credit: Gage Skidmore An amendment to the Patriot Act that would have limited the surveillance powers of the NSA, failed to pass the House last week by a vote of 205-217 with 12 not voting. The amendment, sponsored by Justin Amash (R-Michigan), would have modified section 215 of the Patriot Act to force the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to demonstrate that targeted records were relevant to the case against a person under investigation. The amendment received wi

On Wednesday, July 24, the United States House of Representatives defeated a measure to limit the amount of surveillance the National Security agency aka the NSA. The surveillance program, which has come under intense scrutiny under recent weeks, because of allegations from an ex- NSA employee, Edward Snowden that the program is spying on United States citizens, and collecting records on all United States citizens’ phone calls. The house bill which was produced by a bi partisan group of represe

Justin Amash One of the youngest U.S. Representatives and Chairman of the House Liberty Caucus, Justin Amash is among the most independent members of the House GOP and strives to distance himself from party groupthink. The New York Times noted in 2011 that Amash, “has not voted with the majority 25 percent of the time, the most of any House Republican.” He was recently criticized by GOP strategist Karl Rove, asserting Amash's “staunch libertarian stances on legislation as antithetical to tackl

Sam Beebe - http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8322/7975001982_974eb74b1e_o.jpg It looks like the Motor City has finally broken down, and it’s heading to the mechanic shop to see what can be salvaged. In the latest development of the tragic decline of this iconic city, Detroit filed a petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. While Detroit’s situation is steering into ugly legal avenues, there are important principles that states and other cities would be wise to recognize.  A

Rule number one in effective communication is to establish the relevancy of the topic to the audience. Why should they care? How does it affect their quality of life? Truthful accounting might do just that. For one measure of the states’ quality of life, we turn to the recent work done by Ballotpedia, a “collaborative encyclopedia designed to connect people to politics.” The site focuses on providing a comprehensive and non-partisan analysis of numerous candidates and political efforts. The Lu

(Credit: Gage Skidmore) While National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden weighs his options about asylum, Michigan US Rep Justin Amash is seeking a way to defund the agency's most controversial programs. In early June, it was revealed that the NSA had been conducting extensive domestic spying on American citizens. Despite much fanfare for the leaker Snowden, these programs have remained virtually unchanged. Then on Monday, Michigan Republican Justin Amash announced his intent

President Obama signs healthcare reform in 2010 // Credit: Reid.senate.gov Can a state unilaterally suspend the operation of ObamaCare within its borders? Of course not. That measure would violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. We fought a Civil War over that question. What if two states banded together to suspend the operation of ObamaCare within their common territory? Can they do that? The answer remains the same. No. But let's try this. Let's have those two states - and others

In Minnesota, the recent decision which overturns the congressional affirmation of the provisions of the Voting Rights Act from the 1960s provoked an inappropriate tweet from a democrat in the state legislature, Rep. Ryan Winkler. I find myself torn between respect for the office of Justice of the Supreme Court, and what has appeared to me to be a long series of poor opinions, inaction, and extreme ideological decisions that are consistently harmful to the progress of legislation and efforts to