NORTH CAROLINA -- Not more than a few weeks into the new Congress, one independent member of the GOP is already facing the likelihood of a primary challenger.

Last week, U.S. Senator Rand Paul signaled his intention to bring back up one of his father's failed pet legislative issues: auditing the Federal Reserve System (the Fed).

Paul may attach the latest version of his Audit the Fed legislation to the next debt ceiling increase, which may be before Congress as early as March.

Redistricting has been a contentious process since the early 1800s, when Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that reshaped electoral districts in Massachusetts to benefit the Democratic-Republicans. This manipulation of the redistricting process was nicknamed a Gerry-Mander, partially after Governor Gerry, and partially after the shape of one of the Boston districts, which resembled a salamander.

Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton may have been the leaders of the free world and leaders of the Democratic Party, but both administrations would have floundered without the efforts of the less prominent, but no less powerful political adviser, John Podesta. Serving in both administrations, no other non-officeholder has influenced his party in the modern era as much as this Democratic "go-to guy."

Wikipedia lists 54 separate government watchdog organizations. Most of these groups were formed over the last few decades, some as offshoots of the activism of Ralph Nader in the 1960s and 70s. Others came into being as the Internet took hold as a research tool and communications medium.

Wyoming approved a similar law in January, joining Oklahoma as the only states with the firing squad approved in the event of court rulings against lethal injection.

reported Thursday that U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) may attach his Audit the Fed bill to the debt ceiling increase, which could come as early as March.

The Obama administration opened a three-day summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) at the White House on Wednesday, inviting local, federal, and international leaders to discuss methods of combating domestic and international extremism.

In the last article, we covered how utopian dreaming and rationalistic faith in planning undermined the fundamentally conservative nature of the old Hamiltonian tradition and brought about a deformed and idealistic Progressivism.

“History has shown that it is not good for a Democracy when the executive branch has sweeping surveillance powers.” –Andrew Crocker, EFF

Since 2002, over 40 cases have been brought against U.S. administrations concerning mass surveillance.