Saturday, July 25, 2015

Hillary's email troubles deepen

Federal officials on Friday confirmed they have been asked to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State, deepening the political controversy surrounding the 2016 Democratic frontrunner.
Clinton and her team fiercely pushed back at reports that two inspector generals have asked the Justice Department to look into whether sensitive information was mishandled in connection with her private account.
“Maybe the heat is getting to everybody,” Clinton quipped during an economic address in New York City in which she decried “inaccuracies” in the reports.
But the reports gave a new opening to congressional Republicans, who seized the opportunity to renew their calls that Clinton hand over her personal server as part of their investigation in the deadly terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
The news overshadowed an economic address by Clinton in New York City, and accentuated a challenging week for her campaign marked by a new poll showing her losing head-to-head matchups with three top GOP White House contenders in the swing states of Virginia, Colorado and Iowa.
Republicans have used the revelation that Clinton used a private server as secretary of State to hammer her as untrustworthy, and that’s an issue where polls suggest she is vulnerable.
This week’s poll by Quinnipiac showed strong majorities of voters in Iowa, Virginia and Colorado — three swing-states Democrats hope to win — do not find her honest and trustworthy. The margin in the Colorado poll against her was almost 2-1.    
The new email troubles started late Thursday, when The New York Times reported that two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to determine “whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account” of Clinton.
A second report by The Wall Street Journal on Friday said the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community told Congress in a letter that at least four emails out of a small sampling of 40 from her Clinton’s server should have been classified as "secret."
Clinton argued the reports were misleading, and media outlets backtracked on an initial report that watchdogs had requested a “criminal probe,” something Justice said was incorrect.
“We all have a responsibility to get this right, I have released 55,000 pages of emails, I have said repeatedly that I will answer questions in front of the House committee,” Clinton said at her address in New York, where she outlined a tax plan and endorsed New York’s move toward a $15 minimum wage.
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[COMMENTARY] This is no time to give up on America's national treasures By Maureen Finnerty

We heard it again earlier this month when President Obama designated three major sites in the Western U.S. as national monuments: We should stop adding new national parks and other protected areas until we can pay for the ones we have now. Others have suggested hiking visitor fees so that those who use the parks and national monuments pay the freight for maintaining them.
There is no denying that many of America's national parks and historic places are in disrepair today or offering shortened visitor hours, fewer interpretive guides, and other services that should make a visit to one of our national crown jewels a special experience. This is a tragedy, but it is no reason to give up on preserving more of what makes America unique.
The reason we add a park is because something of outstanding value to our nation's heritage is in danger of damage or outright loss. That imminent destruction is, most often, human plans to pave it over or tear it up in the quest for minerals or real estate development. Precluding the possibility of new parks says that we have already protected everything that will ever be worth protecting. That's preposterous.
Of course it would be better if we addressed all unmet national park and historic site goals. We should rebuild roads, replace roofs on historic buildings and restore unglamorous, but vital, utility systems. We should also underwrite scientific evaluation and monitoring that will assure the landscapes and the plants and animals on them can survive and even thrive.
It is troubling that, as a nation, we lack the political will to foot the bill to protect and restore our shared heritage. This isn't a question of available funding. The amount of what we need to do to fix our parks is staggering when compared to anyone's household budget, but minuscule when compared to what it costs to run a mighty nation. We can afford it. However, we have been choosing, politically, not to do so.
Why not just jack up the cost of entering a national park? In fact, fees create a cost barrier that excludes the youth and lower-income people that are under-represented among our park users today. Thus, they limit who can benefit from the opportunity to experience firsthand the natural and historical heritage that makes America unique.
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[OPINION] Guy Leaving ‘No Tip’ Cards Because Of Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Is An Idiot And Here’s Why

(Photo Credit: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)
(Photo Credit: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Ladies and gentleman, we finally have a hero among us willing to go toe to toe against the evil forces known as the “minimum wage”! There’s only one problem…
He doesn’t seem to understand how it works.
The “it” in this case is the $15 an hour minimum wage that went into effect earlier this year in Seattle, which isn’t unlike Chicago’s recent $13 minimum wage hike. To be clear, the fact that it went into effect does NOT mean all workers in Seattle now receive $15 bucks an hour. Similarly, all Chicago workers are not currently making $13 an hour. Before I get to that explanation, I want to first address the “idiot”…
(To be absolutely clear, this article is not against people who don’t like the minimum wage or tipping culture. This article is against idiots spreading falsehoods.)
According to WTKR, a bartender named Anthony Fetto in Seattle recently received a unique tip. Instead of giving Fetto cash, the customer left him an “informational” card dubbed “Why I don’t tip in Seattle.” The card gives its recipients a free “economy” lesson detailing the many ways the $15 minimum wage is bad.
Basically, the card is an excuse not to tip. It relies on the idea that waiters and bartenders are making a whopping $15 bucks an hour. But, of course, that idea is false.
“At least come up and tell me personally…” Fetto responded. “Don’t be very passive aggressive and just kind of leave this and walk away without saying anything.”
You can read the card’s wisdom for yourself below…
So why isn’t Fetto making the $15 bucks the “info card” claims?

Timeline Photos

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Anyone who’s bothered reading Seattle’s new minimum wage law (and if you’re going to be leaving cards based on the law that make you sound like a self-righteous jerk, you should probably read it) would know that the law takes effect gradually. So yes, the law went into effect in April of this year, but the minimum wage isn’t actually $15 yet.
For employers with fewer than 500 employees, for example, the minimum wage is currently $10 bucks and won’t be $15 until 2021.
For employers that have employees that receive tips, things are a bit less straightforward. For tip-based jobs, employees receive a minimum compensation. A minimum compensation is based off a combination of hourly wages AND tips (and medical benefits, if applicable).
Yes, that is right, though waiters and waitresses will theoretically be paid $15 bucks an hour by 2019, that number is supposed to include tips..
These facts basically nullify our mystery man’s “tip card.” Listen, if you’re going to be a jerk, the least you can do is get your facts straight.
In Chicago, despite the $13 minimum wage law, the current minimum wage is $10. That will slowly go up until 2019, when it will become $13 bucks.
And even though the minimum wage in Chicago is currently $10, the minimum wage for tipped employees is actually $5.45. So please, don’t be a jerk by refusing to tip your waitress!
Want to study up on the many intricacies of these laws so you don’t look like an idiot? Read about Seattle’s here and Chicago’s here.
Mason Johnson is a Web Content Producer for CBS Chicago. You can find him on Twitter.
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‘Flat-out lie’: Cruz calls McConnell a liar on Senate floor

An extraordinary scene unfolded on the Senate floor Friday as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz bluntly accused Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying and said he's running the Senate like his Democratic predecessor. 
The charges from the Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate were a rare departure from the Senate's usual staid decorum, even for a politician famous for his fiery speeches. 
At issue were assurances Cruz claimed McConnell, R-Ky., had given that there was no deal to allow a vote to renew the federal Export-Import Bank -- a little-known federal agency that has become a rallying cry for conservatives. Cruz rose to deliver his remarks moments after McConnell had lined up a vote on the bank. 
"It saddens me to say this. I sat in my office, I told my staff the majority leader looked me in the eye and looked 54 Republicans in the eye. I cannot believe he would tell a flat-out lie, and I voted based on those assurances that he made to each and every one of us," Cruz said. 
"What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, was a simple lie." 
Reports had emerged earlier this year that McConnell privately pledged a vote on the Ex-Im Bank, in exchange for winning support on President Obama's trade agenda. Cruz says he was assured at the time there was no deal. 
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Boehner Wants More ‘Facts’ Before Ending Planned Parenthood Funding. Here’s 8.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he wants to put “facts first” before using the appropriations process to end federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The most recent reports of harvesting and selling body parts from aborted unborn babies have renewed the call to end the more than half a billion dollars that the organization receives in government funding each year.
Here are just a few more facts that Boehner (and all of Congress) should consider before continuing to send the hard-earned dollars of American taxpayers to the nation’s largest abortion provider:
Fact #1: Planned Parenthood Has Become a Billion-Dollar Organization on the Backs of Taxpayers
Planned Parenthood has ridden the waves of taxpayer funding to millions of dollars in annual surpluses. During its last reporting year, like many before it, the organization reported revenues over expenses exceeding $127 million and net assets of more than $1.4 billion. During that same year, Planned Parenthood received over $528 million in taxpayer-funded grants and reimbursements from federal and state coffers – 41 percent of the organization’s total revenue. As a Government Accountability Office reportreleased this past March demonstrates, a large portion of that taxpayer money comes from a variety of federal sources, including Title X and Medicaid.
Fact #2: Planned Parenthood Performs 1 in 3 Abortions in the U.S.
In the 2013-2014 reporting year alone, Planned Parenthood reported performing 327,653 abortions- and nearly 1 million abortions over the pastthree years. There have even been allegations from former employees of mandatory “abortion quotas” that affiliates must meet and the national organization recently announced that all affiliates would have to begin providing abortion services.
Fact #3: Planned Parenthood has Decreased Preventive Care, While Increasing Abortions
While, according to the organization’s most recent report, Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 327,653 abortions during the last reporting year, they made only 1,880 adoption referrals and provided just 18,684 prenatal services. Indeed, abortion accounted for 94 percent of the organization’s pregnancy-related services (abortion, adoption referral, prenatal services). According toanalysis by Americans United for Life, even cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood have decreased 50 percent since 2004, while the number of abortion procedures has increased by about 70,000 each year during the same time period. And despite some supporters’ statements to the contrary, Planned Parenthood does not and cannot provide mammograms.
Fact #4: Planned Parenthood Has Been Accused of Financial Fraud with Taxpayer Dollars
Planned Parenthood affiliates have been accused of potential fraud when it comes to government reimbursements for services. In 2013, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast agreed to pay an over $4 million settlement for Medicaid fraud according to the Texas Attorney General. Summaries of state audits of family planning programs have indicated similar abuse and fraudulent practices by Planned Parenthood affiliates to the tune of over $8 million across 9 states.
Fact #5: Planned Parenthood Fights Commonsense Laws that Protect Women and Children
Along with its many challenges to commonsense state laws regulating abortion doctors and clinics and fighting a bill in Congress to limit dangerous and gruesome late-term abortions, Planned Parenthood has even opposed legislation that would protect infants born alive after failed abortions. More recently, Planned Parenthood was involved in attempts to derail an anti-human trafficking bill in Congress because the legislation included a longstanding and widely-supported policy against taxpayer funding of abortion.
Fact #6: Planned Parenthood Stands Accused of Jeopardizing the Safety and Health of Women and Girls
While claiming to support the interests of women, Planned Parenthood has also been accused by pro-life advocacy groups of abetting the sex trafficking of minor girls and at least four affiliates in Delaware, Virginia, Colorado and Illinois have been similarly accused of neglecting the health and safety of patients.
Fact #7: Women Can Receive Wider Range of Care at Other Centers
Health care services are already being provided for those who need them without unethical practices or entanglement in abortion. More than 2,000 pregnancy centers provide medical testing, prenatal care, ultrasounds and child-birth classes, among other services to women facing unplanned pregnancies, empowering them with life-affirming options.
In addition to those resources specifically for pregnant women, the federal government funds roughly 1,200 federally qualified health clinics across the country that served 21 million people in 2012 alone and often provide birth control options, cancer screenings and women’s health exams, not to mention a wide-range of primary health services for women, children and men.
Fact #8: Planned Parenthood Advances a Culture that Devalues Life
Planned Parenthood is the leader of a gruesome and ruthless industry, which daily adds to the 56 million unborn children and countless women harmed by abortion.
The videos released over the last week have merely shown the nation where the logic of abortion-on-demand inevitably leads: to where tiny livers and lungs are useful for harvesting, but the nameless baby they come from is too small, dependent, disabled, or simply too inconvenient to be allowed to continue living. The value of a life within Planned Parenthood’s walls is measured by its utility and convenience – rather than the inherent dignity of every human being.
Congress Must Stop Funding Planned Parenthood
Regardless of the outcome of the very necessary congressional inquiry, there is no reason to continue entangling federal money with an organization nearly allof whose pregnancy-related services are abortion procedures.
There is nothing stopping individuals, organizations and businesses from continuing to fund Planned Parenthood with private dollars (although, requests by Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox to remove their names from Planned Parenthood’s corporate donors list may be indication that even the private sector isn’t too happy with the latest, horrific revelations about the non-profit).
Policymakers looking to put limited taxpayer funds to more efficient and effective use should redirect those dollars to centers and clinics that can provide more comprehensive care for women. All women – but especially those facing difficult circumstances – deserve better care for their health and more options than the cold doors of an abortion facility.
No society that is truly committed to protecting basic human rights can continue funding an industry that harms women, takes the lives of the most vulnerable children and cheapens our respect for life – especially when its leader allegedly harvests and sells tiny organs for profit.
Those should be all the facts Congress needs to end funding of Planned Parenthood.
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Cartoon: Planned Parenthood and Taxpayer Funding

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint wrote this week about why Planned Parenthood needs to stop receiving taxpayer dollars:
A video released last week by the Center for Medical Progress shocked the nation by showing an executive of Planned Parenthood sipping wine and casually talking about the going rate for the organs of aborted infants.
Yesterday morning, another undercover video compounded outrage toward Planned Parenthood’s activities. It once again raises the question of whether Planned Parenthood could be profiting off the sale of fetal tissue, as well as altering abortion procedures to preserve organs for sale.
Toward the end of the video, a Planned Parenthood executive jokes: “It’s been years since I talked about compensation, so let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, it’s fine, and if it’s still low, then we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini.”
This should demonstrate to all Americans—even if they consider themselves “pro-choice”—that taxpayers should have nothing to do with this grim business.
Only yesterday, however, when asked whether the Obama administration would consider ending federal funding to Planned Parenthood, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest gave a one-second answer: “No.” As noted by The Washington Free Beacon, Earnest thought Donald Trump’s latest activities were worth several minutes of discussion, evidently a far more important topic to the administration than whether an organization supported by taxpayers and applauded by President Obama has been trafficking baby organs.
Just as the killer Kermit Gosnell’s “house of horrors” abortion clinic was carefully ignored by the media until public outrage compelled news coverage, we’ve seen only the barest attention paid to the Planned Parenthood revelations. The headlines that do get published are carefully sanitized to reflect Planned Parenthood’s talking points—and to gloss over the children being dehumanized into mere livers, hearts and lungs.
But blaming news outlets and press secretaries for being hostage to their own ideologies will get us only so far. A story of this enormity couldn’t remain under wraps despite their best efforts (and worst journalism). Ultimately, it is our elected leaders who must answer for the continued activities of Planned Parenthood—and the support they receive from our tax dollars every year.
And answer they should: Planned Parenthood received over $528 millionfrom taxpayers during their last reporting year.
One day all Americans will look back on the charnel industry of abortion with the same disgust and shame as we do other historical atrocities. Until then, Congress has an obligation to eliminate federal taxpayer funding for this industry’s largest representative, Planned Parenthood, an organization that performs 1 out of every 3 abortions in the United States.
Speaker of the House John Boehner has promised an investigation of Planned Parenthood’s alleged organ harvesting practices, and Sen. Rand Paul—a doctor himself—has vowed to fight federal funding for the institution. These are steps in the right direction.
For over two thousand years, since the Greek physician Hippocrates founded the science of Western medicine, doctors took an oath never to administer poison to destroy an unborn child. The least Congress can do is to keep our money from those who make such tragedy a business: defund Planned Parenthood now.

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