Why America Hates the GOP-Obamatrade Deal

Outside the Beltway bubble, a broad coalition of voters from the left, right and center opposes the mega-trade deal getting rammed through Congress this week by the Republican establishment on behalf of the White House. 

Here’s why.

Constitutional conservatives don’t like it. Trade unions abhor it. Obama critics hate it. Environmentalists despise it.

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out American sovereignty. Their so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission will have sweeping authority over trade, immigration, environmental, labor and commerce regulations.

As alert watchdogs U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., warn: “By adopting fast-track, Congress would be formally authorizing the President to finalize the creation of this Pacific Union and will have surrendered its legislative prerogatives. Before a word, line, paragraph, or page of this plan is made public, Congress will have agreed to give up its treaty powers. … In effect, one of the most sweeping international agreements seen in years will be given less legislative scrutiny and process than a Post Office reform bill.”

The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out legislative transparency. Boehner smugly asserts that so-called Trade Promotion Authority puts Congress in charge and promotes “more openness” on trade talks. Nonsense. Under the Boehner/Obama plan, Congress gives up its ability to amend any trade deals under fast track, severely limits the ability to debate and lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 61 to 51. The 11 international parties negotiating with Obama on TPP refuse to sign their dotted lines until Congress agrees to pre-agree to behemoth global trade pacts — sight unseen.

Via: Human Events

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[AUDIO] Rick Perry: Obama Lacks ‘Executive Experience’

Earlier this week, during his press conference at the G7 Summit in Germany, President Barack Obama said in response to a question about the fight against ISIS, “We don’t yet have a complete strategy, because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis.”

The president’s conservative’s critics were quick to jump all over the statement as proof that the administration doesn’t know what it’s doing in the Middle East, a narrative that carried into an interview Dana Loesch conducted with former Texas governor and current Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry this week.

Perry said he was “stunned” that Obama would make those comments publicly and that he believed they provided some level of insight into the president’s mentality on ISIS. The candidate suggested that if Obama hadn’t expressed a “lack of engagement to stop ISIS” in Syria, then the U.S. could have somehow eliminated both the terrorist network and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite the fact that they were fighting each other and knocking one side down would have only bolstered the other.

“It’s this lack of really being able to connect the dots, I think it’s a lack of executive experience that this president has, as well as a philosophical void when it comes to understanding what it takes to keep America safe,” Perry added.

While this “executive experience” argument may have been a reasonable line of attack against Obama in 2008, now that he has been president for more than six years, it rings a bit hollow.

Listen to the full interview below (ISIS comments start at approx. 15:40):

Via: Mediaite

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SCOTUS Okaying Gay Marriage Is Not Bad Law, It's Not Law at All

Within the month, the nation will receive the opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether the U.S. Constitution requires all of the states to jettison their domestic laws and sanction same-sex marriage.  Numerous federal judges have so ruled, and most states have simply yielded to those federal court decisions.  In a few cases, beginning with Vermont and Massachusetts, state courts ruled for same-sex marriage, and state officials have accepted passively those decisions as well. 

Generally, courts have ruled for same-sex marriage using either the “due process clause” or the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment, or both.  That raises a simple question:  is it really possible that when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 the framers intended that it sanction same-sex marriage?  Of course not.  The U.S. Constitution says nothing about same-sex marriage.  Then, how could the Constitution be manipulated to support a decision in favor of same-sex marriage?  Well it has not been easy.  The Constitutional case for same-sex marriage is pathetically weak — unless you adopt the notion of an “evolving” Constitution — which is, of course, the polar opposite of the notion of our “written” Constitution. 

There are actually four cases, all from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which have been consolidated for decision in the U.S. Supreme Court — Obergefell, DeBoer, Tanco, and Bourke.  If you would like to know more about how this case developed, a great deal of information, and links to all documents, is available on SCOTUSblog.  The amicus curiae brief which we filed in the Sixth Circuit in support of traditional marriage is available, as is the amicus curiae brief which we filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Via: CNS News

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California’s Political Earthquake On Its Way

California is facing an uncertain future – and it’s not an earthquake, despite a current blockbuster movie. There’s a water crisis, an education system declared woeful by a state judge and soaring costs on all levels – water, utilities, energy, housing and taxes. These could all be eclipsed by the huge elephant in the room – unfunded pensions and health care for state and local government employees that could be $1 trillion or more.

What are our public officials doing? As was recently reported, there are no fewer than a dozen proposals in the legislature to increase taxes AND spending, despite the massive underfunding of pensions and health care. The governor crows about a California ‘comeback’ but he almost completely ignores the trillion dollar bomb expected to hit over the next 20 years. This government employee pensions and healthcare bomb only gets worse, as life expectancies expand and investments underperform the rosy scenarios built into their projections.

Take heart, California, there is change coming and it’s not the San Andreas splitting apart. It will be a political earthquake and it’s called the Neighborhood Legislature (NL). It will replace the dysfunctional and practically corrupt (if not actually corrupt in some cases) California legislature. We just received Title and Summary and we have built a professional plus volunteer organization that will soon be circulating through the neighborhood precincts of California to collect signatures and build support for this groundbreaking proposal.

Why is this such a political earthquake? Because it holds real promise that it will return power to actual representatives of the people, citizen legislators, who will be able to explore and implement the important reforms unimpeded by the allure and/or sting from special interest money spent to protect the status quo. These citizen legislators will replace the professional fundraisers and special interest representatives we currently endure.

Via: California Political Review

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[VIDEO] 'He did nothing wrong': Florida principal ousted after defending Texas cop

A Florida high school principal, who defended the Texas police officer at the center of that infamous pool melee, has become the latest victim of radical speech police hell-bent on trying to silence public discourse.

Alberto Iber lost his job as the principal at North Miami Senior High School after he wrote a comment about the McKinney, Texas incident on the Miami Herald’s website.

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“He did nothing wrong,” Iber wrote. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”

Three sentences. Sixteen words. Sixty-two characters.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement on June 10 announcing that Mr. Iber had been removed from his position at the high school and reassigned to an administrative position.

The district said they require their employees to conduct themselves “in a manner that represents the school district’s core values.”

Superintendent Carvahlo sent a very chilling message to his employees – any opinion that is contrary to liberal ideology must be silenced. And those who dare to voice such an opinion in the public marketplace must be severely punished.

“Judgment is the currency of honesty,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho wrote in a statement. “Insensitivity – intentional or perceived – is both unacceptable and inconsistent with our policies, but more importantly with our expectation of common sense behavior that elevates the dignity and humanity of all, beginning with children.”

Via: Fox News

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GOP Releases Hillary ‘Wrong For America’ Video 2 Days Before Her Do-Over Announcement

The GOP has come out swinging at Hillary Clinton with a new video two days before Clinton’s re-do announcement speech in New York.

The 30-second ad, titled “Wrong for America,” is made up of clips from news coverage of Clinton’s sliding poll numbers, her disconnect with “everyday Americans” she wants to champion, and her exorbitant wealth.

The video ends with a final punch from Larry Sabato.

“They act like she is allergic to real people.”

Via: WFB

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$2.1T: Tax Revenue for FY15 Hit Record Through May; Gov't Runs $365B Deficit

(CNSNews.com) - Inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues hit a record $2,103,987,000,000 for the first eight months of the fiscal year this May, but the federal government still ran a $365,156,000,000 deficit during that time, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement.

Each month, the Treasury publishes the government’s “total receipts,” including all revenue from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), unemployment insurance taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and “miscellaneous receipts.”

In constant 2015 dollars, the $2,103,987,000,000 that the federal government collected from October through May in fiscal 2015 was $170,187,740,000 more than the $1,933,799,260,000 it collected in October through May in fiscal 2014.

The Treasury has been tracking these data since 1977 and at that time the federal government collected $868,767,320,000 in inflation-adjusted revenue in the first eight months of fiscal 1977. This means that since then, revenues have more than doubled, increasing by 142 percent.

Via: CNS News

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Hillary embarrassing herself with Roosevelt Island 're-launch' tomorrow

Hillary Clinton's campaign comprises a bunch of clueless dolts, who don't understand symbolism at all.  The choices they have made for tomorrow's event intended to bolster a flailing effort are only digging her hole deeper.
It will be far, far more difficult to attend Hillary Clinton’s campaign “re-launch” tomorrow than to vote for her, if she gets her way on voting.  Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard highlights an e-mail sent out by Hillary for America:

There will be airport style security. Items that will NOT BE permitted include food, liquids other than water, large bags, large purses, backpacks, strollers, umbrellas, noise makers, bullhorns, posters, signs, pets other than licensed service animals, sharp objects, or weapons.

When her personal safety is at issue, she demands advance registration and a ticket and photo ID.  But when the fate of the nation hangs in the balance with a presidential election, she wants people to be able to waltz into a polling station, claim to be someone, and vote with no questions asked and definitely no photo ID.  And she’d like weeks to be allowed to do so, in case you want to vote a hundred times using the names of deceased residents who haven’t been purged from the voters’ register.

But that’s just the beginning of the embarrassment.  The entire concept of a re-launch suggest that the campaign has been a failure.  I am most familiar with the concept of re-launch from television programs featuring celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay of Kitchen Nightmares and Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible, who go into failing eateries, clean up the kitchens, motivate the staff, redecorate the dining area, and teach the kitchen staff to cook new and more appealing items.  Despite all the aid and the re-launch, investigators claim that most of the restaurants end up failing.

Can we just call Hillary for America “Campaign Nightmares” or “Campaign Impossible”?

Via: American Thinker

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Marilyn Mosby’s Father Was A ‘Crooked Cop,’ Police Officer Grandfather Sued For Racial Discrimination

Marilyn Mosby has made it widely known that she comes from a long line of police officers, five generations of law enforcement to be exact. The 35-year-old Baltimore city state’s attorney’s father, mother, grandfather, and uncles have all at some point worked as cops — a history which Mosby cites to push back against the claim — as Fox News’ Griff Jenkins put it during a recent interview — that Baltimore’s finest believe the rookie prosecutor does not have their backs because of how she’s handled the Freddie Gray case.

“I come from five generations of police officers,” Mosby responded to Jenkins. “That’s absurd.”

But while it’s true that numerous Mosby family members have worn the badge, a thorough look reveals a more complicated picture of that law enforcement background than she has let on in public.

Start with Mosby’s father, a former Boston police officer named Alan James. In 1989, James and a fellow officer named Dwight Allen were arrested and charged with assault and battery for their role in several armed robberies in a high-crime area of Boston.

According to a Boston Globe article at the time, James, Allen and another suspect flashed badges and brandished guns while shaking down drug dealers. The officers identified themselves as “renegade police” and were reportedly drunk. During one robbery, one of the men fired his gun, though nobody was hurt.

James was arrested while on duty at a police station in Dorcester but was acquitted of charges in the case in 1991. After acquittal he was immediately fired for conduct unbecoming an officer, according to the Baltimore Brew, an independent newspaper.

Mosby has not publicly acknowledged this mark on her family’s policing legacy. Though, according to the Brew, she acknowledged her father’s troubled past in a biography written for her campaign for state’s attorney.

“My dad was a crooked cop,” Mosby said, according to the document, which was not released to the public. “He confiscated drugs and money from the dealers on a regular basis.”

Via: Daily Caller

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BLOOD IN THE WATER: 34 COURAGEOUS CONSERVATIVES WOUND OBAMATRADE ON WAY TO FINAL HOUSE VOTE

A whopping 34 courageous conservative Republicans shocked the political world on Thursday by severely wounding—and nearly killing—Obamatrade on a purely procedural vote.

Most importantly about this is that the vote passed with less than a majority of the full House of Representatives. Speaker 

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

40%

 was only able to — on a purely procedural vote — obtain 217, rather than the 218 votes for a majority, votes for the rule. It passed the House 217-212.

The vote, which nearly failed and would have ended Obamatrade right there, was a necessary procedural hurdle—a rule—that was must-pass for Obamatrade to make its way to the House floor for final consideration on Friday. What’s more, the nearly successful effort to kill Obamatrade—which has been lobbied heavily for by House GOP leadership, particularly the program’s chief architect Ways and Means Committee chairman 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

60%

—means that there’s blood in the water around Obamatrade everywhere in the eleventh hour.

The 34 conservatives who stood up to the Washington establishment are: Reps. 

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI)

95%

, 

Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA)

100%

, Dave Brat (R-VA),

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO)

80%

, 

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)

95%

, 

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA)

82%

, 

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)

90%

, 

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)

88%

, 

Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY)

42%

, 

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

94%

, 

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ)

80%

, 

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)

65%

, 

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)

78%

, 

Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA)

60%

,

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)

70%

, 

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)

92%

, 

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID)

95%

, 

Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)

78%

, 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)

91%

, 

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC)

95%

, 

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV)

60%

, 

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)

92%

, 

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL)

100%

, 

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM)

70%

, 

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA)

68%

, 

Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL)

78%

, 

Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA)

59%

, 

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ)

91%

, 

Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ)

95%

, 

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN)

83%

, 

Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL)

62%

, 

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)

80%

, 

Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK)

95%

 and 

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL)

73%

.

“Americans should be proud that 34 Republicans put their country before their political party today,” Americans for Limited Government president Rick Manning tells Breitbart News. “Their vote to stop Obamatrade dead in its tracks is one that sets the stage for tomorrow’s defeat of enabling him to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other treaties.  The nation owes these 34 heroes a debt of gratitude.”

Via: Breitbart

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