The Obama administration may be going to battle with North Carolina, but the state’s congressional delegation is going to bat for it. While the Justice and Education Departments plot their revenge for the Tar Heel’s Public Facilities Privacy & Securities Act (H.B. 2), a few blocks away in Congress, House members from North Carolina are demanding some answers of their own. In a letter to the Department of Education signed by 10 Tar Heel Congressmen — Richard Hudson, David Rouzer, Renee Ellmers, Virginia Foxx, Walter Jones, Mark Walker, George Holding, Mark Meadows, Robert Pittenger, Patrick McHenry — the group demanded an explanation for the financial blackmail the administration is threatening over what they call a “perceived violation” of Title IX.

“Federal discrimination law is set by Congress, and it does not single-handedly evolve by executive fiat; therefore anything not specified in federal discrimination law by Congress is left up to the states. The purpose of federal law is to set a floor for all states to abide by, and North Carolina law meets the federal standard… The administration cannot unilaterally rewrite current law or redefine the law in a way that Congress never intended. The United States Constitution makes clear that it is Congress’s job to write the law and the Executive Branch’s job to enforce those laws.”

In the not too distant future, North Carolina’s members may not be the only ones weighing in. FRC’s team has been in conversations with leaders in Congress about the possibility of oversight hearings into the DOE’s nationwide intimidation campaign. As the letter’s signers made quite clear: “We strongly believe that any move to withhold federal funding from North Carolina is without legal merit and an unprecedented overreach by the federal government.” No one in the Obama administration should be using taxpayer dollars to strong-arm schools into carrying out the White House’s agenda on sexual chaos.

Meanwhile, you have to hand it to the Left. They’re a persistent bunch. Even after state leaders repealed Charlotte’s bathroom ordinance, filed two lawsuits against the federal government, and stared down opposition from Big Business, the media, and entertainers, North Carolina Democrats are still trying to move their radical agenda forward. In a head-shaker, the state’s liberals have introduced the very legislation the governor and the rest of the General Assembly rejected. Calling it the “Equality for All Act,” Democrats claim that the “need for nondiscrimination protections for LGBT” is more urgent than ever. “This bill, along with the repeal of H.B. 2, is the important next step that this General Assembly and Governor McCrory must take in order to make North Carolina a true state of equality and help heal our national reputation.”

Unlike H.B. 2, which gave businesses the freedom to set their own policies, this measure would force them to adopt restroom policies as unsafe as Target’s. By adding the terms “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to the state’s statute, the LGBT community would also enjoy preferential treatment in “real estate transactions, housing practices, employment, places of public accommodation, credit lenders, insurance, and education.” And that’s not all. The Act would also create a “human relations” commission, which is just code for a government board that would crack down on anyone with natural views of marriage and sexuality under the guise of “promoting understanding, respect, and goodwill for all citizens.” Fortunately for everyone, the proposal has almost zero chance of passing through a legislature that, less than six weeks ago, laid everything on the line to protect North Carolina’s freedom and privacy.

Originally published here.

The Justice Department’s ‘Hillary for President’ Club

If you’re wondering why the Justice Department can carve out “hours and hours” for North Carolina bathrooms but has no time to spare for the scandal of a presidential front-runner, one source thinks it knows why. According to Washington Free Beacon, Hillary Clinton raked in almost $75,000 in political contributions from the same employees supposedly conducting her investigation. (For comparison’s sake, Republican Donald Trump has a grand total of $381 from Justice employees.) A dozen of the 228 gifts were for the “maximum individual amount allowed by law.”

No wonder reporters are starting to wonder about the DOJ’s priorities! In a press conference with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the media asked why officials “moved very quickly on the North Carolina matter” since “the average American is wondering why it’s taking so long to reach some kind of conclusion on the email investigation.” Lynch replied that Clinton’s case was “an ongoing matter” that was “being handled by the career lawyers and agents of the department, and they will review all the facts and evidence and make a recommendation at the appropriate time, so I don’t have anything more to say…”

Lynch didn’t need to explain further — the political contributions say it all. In an administration where corruption and scandal are unofficial subplots of so many agencies, few people are probably surprised that the DOJ is protecting its own. But, as David Bossie of Citizens United points out, “How can Democrat political appointees fairly investigate someone who is about to become their nominee for president?” Obviously, there’s a conflict of interest — which should make the need for a special prosecutor quite clear… at least to anyone not donating to the campaign of the person under investigation.

Originally published here.

All Rhodes Lead to Iran

American voters didn’t elect Ben Rhodes to the White House, but he’s certainly been empowered like it. In an eye-opening exposé for The New York Times, reporters dig deeper into the president’s startlingly young and inexperienced foreign policy advisor, who had more influence over America’s worst foreign policy deal than anyone. Among the many stunning revelations, Rhodes openly admits that the administration used deception to sell the Iran deal to U.S. leaders.

And while Obama’s dishonesty isn’t surprising, Rhodes’s blunt admission about it is. He brags that the administration was not only deceiving the American public, but the press corps and manufacturing experts. While the White House denied it to the media, staffers were, in fact, holding secret talks with Iran — with the goal to get the U.S. out of the Middle East completely. “The Orwellian public relations strategy utilized so-called arms-control experts who were spoonfed tidbits that validated White House claims and those materials were in turn disseminated to ‘hundreds of often-clueless reporters,’” the Times writes. The 38-year-old, considered a “co-president” on the most dangerous deal America has ever entered into, intentionally cut Israel out of the initiative in the hopes of empowering its — and the West’s — most deadly foe.

Ironically, Rhodes himself is the epitome of “junior varsity,” having almost zero real-world experience that this level of decision-making usually requires — like military or diplomatic service, or even a master’s degree in international relations,“ Breitbart points out. Yet this under-40 liberal was at the controls of a deal that puts millions of Americans at risk.

[Tuesday], former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who served on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence when she was in the House, expressed her disgust on "Washington Watch.” “[The Iranian deal] is probably the most foolish, really the most tragic decision I’ve ever seen. They wouldn’t even allow their hand-picked defense cabinet members or Pentagon members or State members to get involved in this decision. Only President Obama and his aide made this decision made on their preconceived and tragically flawed ideal… This aide has zero foreign policy background, was a poor student, a pot smoker, and a drinker who wrote fiction.”

Turns out, his experience in fiction was handy in selling lies to the media. Described as a “ventriloquist” who controlled the press, Rhodes may now be the author of “the consolidation of hard-liner power in Iran; the collapse of the ban on Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles; the collapse of the arms control regimes preventing Iran from buying heavy weapons and missiles from Russia; Iran’s staging of multiple new ballistic missile tests. "Should Congress do something?” Michele said. “You bet. There should be impeachment proceedings brought up against all sorts of people in the administration. Certainly the president should be subject to impeachment.”

Originally published here.