Chicago: Pension crisis, 'gorilla in the room,' gets just one line in Emanuel inaugural address

Mayor Rahm Emanuel made it a one-liner during a second inaugural address devoted almost exclusively to “preventing another lost generation” of young people.

But the “gorilla in the room” was as plain as day to the aldermen who joined the mayor onstage at the swearing-in ceremony Monday at the Chicago Theater.

In fact, the $30 billion pension crisis, that has dropped Chicago’s bond rating to junk status, has placed the city in such a precarious position that the mayor’s City Council floor leader has warned 13 rookie aldermen not to expect the political version of spring training.

“Normally the first couple months in City Council are very slow and very relaxed. He said, `Don’t expect that this time. It’s gonna be very difficult the next couple of months. We’re gonna have to pass legislation very quickly to deal with this financial situation,’” said 26-year-old Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), the City Council’s youngest member.

“I’m not surprised that the mayor didn’t address it because we know the gorilla in the room and we’re gonna tackle that gorilla.”

Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s floor leader, said the rapid-fire votes that will be required to pull Chicago away from the financial cliff might even cancel the Council’s traditional August recess.

“I can say with great certainty that we’re not gonna wait for the budget cycle to confront some of these problems,” O’Connor said

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

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[VIDEO] “All Questions Are Bad!”: Funny or Die DESTROYS Hillary Clinton

Via: BuzzPo

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[VIDEO] Military intel predicted rise of ISIS in 2012, detailed arms shipments from Benghazi to Syria

Seventeen months before President Obama dismissed the Islamic State as a "JV team," a Defense Intelligence Agency report predicted the rise of the terror group and likely establishment of a caliphate if its momentum was not reversed. 

While the report was circulated to the CIA, State Department and senior military leaders, among others, it's not known whether Obama was ever briefed on the document. 

The DIA report, which was reviewed by Fox News, was obtained through a federal lawsuit by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch. Documents from the lawsuit also reveal a host of new details about events leading up to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack -- and how the movement of weapons from Libya to Syria fueled the violence there. 

The report on the growing threat posed by what is now known as the Islamic State was sent on Aug. 5, 2012. 

The report warned the continued deterioration of security conditions would have "dire consequences on the Iraqi situation," and huge benefits for ISIS -- which grew out of Al Qaeda in Iraq. 

"This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi," the document states, adding "ISI (Islamic State of Iraq) could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory." 

Via: Fox News Politics

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The President Finally Gets an Official Twitter Account

Yesterday morning, Barack Obama officially joined Twitter — except, didn’t he do that already!?

Wait, whoa, what?! Why are you now @POTUS? Bobama, didn’t you practically invent political Twitter? Aren’t you already @BarackObama? Or @WhiteHouse? What’s the deal here?

Let us explain!

According to the White House, @POTUS will be the official account of the President of the United States, regardless of who holds the office. So while Obama will be able to tweet from @POTUS for the next two years, showing the world his fighter jets and Instagrammed breakfasts and policy whatnots, the handle will be given to the next President as a symbol of the peaceful democratic transfer of powerthat makes America great.

(As an analogue, Pope Francis inherited @Pontifex from Pope Benedict XVI, who is currently locked in a library with old encyclicals and probably doesn’t care for having his own Twitter account. The Vatican itself has its own Twitter account.)

On the other hand, the White House’s Twitter account belongs to whatever administration sits in the executive mansion, while @BarackObama, which became a symbol of 2008 Obama’s tech-savvy campaigning, is run by the Obama for America team. Obama himself occasionally tweets from that account, but by having an official account for the Presidency, can disentangle his official Tweets from his campaigning/advocacy/community organizing Tweets.

As for why it took so darn long to get an official @POTUS account up and running — let’s just assume the White House and Twitter worked for a long time to secure a direct Presidential Twitter account that doesn’t allow the President to DM Anthony Weiner pics.

Welp, this is a neat story out of the White House; nothing could possibly make it seem odd. Oh…

Via: Mediaite

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Poll: One In Four Americans Satisfied With Direction Of The Country

Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of the U.S. has dropped 6 points since the beginning of the year, with government, the economy and unemployment cited as the top problems facing the nation.

Satisfaction with how things are going in the country hit a two-year high in January at 32 percent but has gradually dropped since then to 26 percent, Gallup said.

Fourteen percent of Americans rated dissatisfaction with government the most important problem facing the country today, followed by the economy in general at 12 percent and unemployment at 10 percent.

Race relations (8 percent); immigration (6 percent); a decline in moral, religious and family ethics (6 percent); health care (5 percent); and terrorism (5 percent) were also frequently cited problems facing the country.

“After years of dysfunctional government, the economy and unemployment dominating Americans’ mentions of the top problem facing the nation, fewer mention these problems now than in recent years,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy wrote. “Still, these three problems remain at the forefront of Americans’ concerns and may be driving Americans’ high level of dissatisfaction with the nation’s direction.”

The survey of 1,024 adults was conducted May 6-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Via: Washington Times

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Kansas could lose millions for limiting welfare recipients to $25 at ATMs BY LINDSAY WISE AND DION LEFLER

WASHINGTON — A first-of-its-kind provision that prevents welfare recipients in Kansas from withdrawing more than $25 a day from an ATM might violate federal law, and could jeopardize the state’s federal funding if not amended.

The Social Security Act requires states to ensure that recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, “have adequate access to their cash assistance” and can withdraw money “with minimal fees or charges.”

At stake is about $102 million in TANF block grant funds that Kansas receives every year from the federal government.

The state’s controversial ATM limit was added as an amendment to a welfare overhaul bill signed in April by Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican. The new law also bars welfare recipients from spending their benefit money at certain places, including movie theaters, massage parlors, cruise ships and swimming pools. It also sets stricter eligibility requirements and shortened the amount of time people can receive assistance.

Brownback said in an interview on Friday that he is aware of the possible conflict with federal statutes and that the affected state agencies in his administration are working to fix it.

The governor said he’s open to raising the limit if necessary to comply with federal policies.

“We’ll work with them; it’s a joint program,” Brownback said. “We’ll do what we have to do to work with the federal partnership.”

Via: McClatchey

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/17/266888/kansas-could-lose-millions-for.html#storylink=cpy

Supreme Court Strikes Down Maryland 'Double Tax' Law

Maryland cannot impose a form of double taxation on residents by not giving them credit for some taxes paid on income earned in other states, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a decision that could slash revenue collected in a number of states.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices sided with taxpayers Brian and Karen Wynne in finding that Maryland's taxation policy violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against interstate commerce, upholding lower-court decisions favoring the couple.

Maryland offers a tax credit for income taxes paid by residents to other states. But it said the credits available to the Wynnes for their out-of-state income did not apply to the couple's county income tax.

The Wynnes were denied a full $84,550 tax credit based on their healthcare business that paid taxes in 39 states in 2006. The state said they owed around $25,000.

The ruling could reduce tax revenues collected by local jurisdictions in Maryland by up to $50 million a year, according to a brief filed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and other groups that backed the state.

"That Maryland's existing tax unconstitutionally discriminates against interstate commerce is enough to decide this case," Justice Samuel Alito wrote on behalf of the majority.

The court was not divided on its usual ideological lines, with Alito joined in the majority by two fellow conservatives, John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy, as well as liberals Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Most states already offer a full credit for taxes paid in other states. Among states that could be affected by the ruling are Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a brief filed by the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Separately, New York City is one of a number of municipalities that impose income taxes and do not provide a full credit for taxes paid out of state, the association said.

Via: Newsmaz

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Let Syrians Settle Detroit

Detroit, a once great city, has become an urban vacuum. Its population has fallen to around 700,000 from nearly 1.9 million in 1950. The city is estimated to have more than 70,000 abandoned buildings and 90,000 vacant lots. Meanwhile, desperate Syrians, victims of an unfathomable civil war, are fleeing to neighboring countries, with some 1.8 million in Turkey and 600,000 in Jordan.

Suppose these two social and humanitarian disasters were conjoined to produce something positive.

Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, a Republican, has already laid the groundwork. In January 2014 he called for an infusion of 50,000 immigrants as part of a program to revitalize Detroit, and signed an executive order creating the Michigan Office for New Americans.

Syrian refugees would be an ideal community to realize this goal, as Arab-Americans are already a vibrant and successful presence in the Detroit metropolitan area. A 2003 survey by the University of Michigan of 1,016 members of this community (58 percent of whom were Christian, and 42 percent Muslim) found that 19 percent were entrepreneurs and that the median household income was $50,000 to $75,000 per year.

What confidence can we have that traumatized war refugees can be transformed into budding American entrepreneurs? We cannot know for sure. But recent evidence of recaptured children from the clutches of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and victims of violent crime across five continents reveals that they become more active citizens than similar compatriots who have not suffered from these traumatic events. In the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, Syrians, despite psychological scars and limited resources, have set up 3,500 shops, stores and other businesses.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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Why Not Martin O’Malley? (One can think of a thousand reasons)

On April 10, Elizabeth Warren joined Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and declared, “Powerful corporations [and] rich people have figured out that if you can bend the government to help you just a little bit, it’s a tremendous payoff, and if you can bend it to help you just a little bit more and a little bit more, the playing field just gets more and more tilted, and the rich and the powerful just do better and better.” A week later, Martin O’Malley stood before a packed crowd at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and proclaimed, “Concentrated wealth has accumulated concentrated political power in the halls of our Congress, and also in many, many, many of our state houses, making it harder than ever to get things done.”

Both of these quotes are emblematic of a nascent populist movement in the Democratic Party. Both reflect a deep concern that all Americans don’t have an equal shot at prosperity. Both demonstrate a growing opposition to the centrist Democratic policies of the Clinton era—the trade policies and the welfare reform—that seemed to mostly benefit the wealthiest Americans.

Yet it is Martin O’Malley, not Elizabeth Warren, who has a proven record of accomplishing real progress on these issues on a state level. It is Martin O’Malley, not Elizabeth Warren, who became the first major Democratic politician to endorse a national $15 minimum wage at the Institute of Politics on Thursday. And it is Martin O’Malley, not Elizabeth Warren, who is seriously considering challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.

So why have political pundits come to the consensus that Elizabeth Warren is the only one who could give Hillary a run for her money in the Democratic primary? Perhaps it is O’Malley’s lack of name recognition. He is currently polling at around 0.3 percent in the Iowa Democratic Caucus, compared to Clinton’s 58 percent, and Warren’s 17 percent. But that number is increasing, and O’Malley received a warm reception in recent trips to New Hampshire and Iowa.

Via: Harvard Political Review

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Kerry: Internet 'Needs Rules to Be Able to Flourish and Work Properly'

In a speech today in South Korea, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Internet "needs rules to be able to flourish and work properly." This, according to Kerry, is necessary even for "a technology founded on freedom."

Speaking on behalf of the Obama administration, Kerry said that Internet policy is "a key component of our foreign policy."

Kerry made his remarks in the context of talking about how international law is applicable to the Internet. "As I’ve mentioned, the basic rules of international law apply in cyberspace. Acts of aggression are not permissible. And countries that are hurt by an attack have a right to respond in ways that are appropriate, proportional, and that minimize harm to innocent parties. We also support a set of additional principles that, if observed, can contribute substantially to conflict prevention and stability in time of peace. We view these as universal concepts that should be appealing to all responsible states, and they are already gaining traction," said Kerry.

"First, no country should conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages or impedes the use of another country’s critical infrastructure. Second, no country should seek either to prevent emergency teams from responding to a cybersecurity incident, or allow its own teams to cause harm. Third, no country should conduct or support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, or other confidential business information for commercial gain. Fourth, every country should mitigate malicious cyber activity emanating from its soil, and they should do so in a transparent, accountable and cooperative way. And fifth, every country should do what it can to help states that are victimized by a cyberattack.

"I guarantee you if those five principles were genuinely and fully adopted and implemented by countries, we would be living in a far safer and far more confident cyberworld.

Via: The Weekly Standard

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GIRL SCOUTS WELCOME CROSS-DRESSING BOYS INTO THEIR RANKS

The Girl Scouts of America (GSA) is the latest organization to cave to pressure from the LGBTIQA lobby, adapting its policies to extend membership to boys who identify as girls.

Penny Nance from Concerned Women for America called the decision “just one more slap in the face to Christian parents.”

On the GSA website, the association states: “If the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.”

Girls participating in the scouts will now be obliged to recognize transgenderism as a normal lifestyle, critics say.

The conservative American Family Association expressed its outrage at the policy change, accusing scout leaders of “losing their moral compass.” This is the case of adults being “willing to experiment on our kids—both the boys who are confused and the girls who will wonder why a boy in a dress is in the bathroom with them.”

“Boys in skirts, boys in make-up and boys in tents will become a part of the program. This change will put young innocent girls at risk,” the group said.

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] Ted Cruz - Free Speech Under Assault May 11, 2015

Via: You Tube

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded like she was pushing for “re-education camps”

(CNSNews.com) – Gov. Bobby Jindal (R.-La.) told Fox News on Sunday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded like she was pushing for “re-education camps” when she said "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed" on abortion.

"The reality is first of all you listen to her language: ‘our religious beliefs need to be changed.’ It sounds like reeducation camps. She didn't say specifically how she wants us to change our beliefs. My religious beliefs aren't between me and Hillary Clinton. They're between me and God," Jindal said.

Jindal was asked what he thought about Clinton saying religious beliefs will have to be changed in terms of abortion.

Speaking at the "Women in the World" Summit last month, Clinton said women won't have full access to "reproductive health care" until "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases" are changed.

"Yes we've cut the maternal mortality rate in half but far too many women are denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth. All the laws we've passed don't count for much if they're not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will, and deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed," Clinton said.

Jindal also criticized Clinton and the left for how they construe freedom of religion.

Via:CNS News

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Installing ‘angel-hood’ on Christian persecutors

Having convinced themselves that they will be able to convert the centuries old Catholic Church now that Pope Francis has thrown in with Obama and Palestine, the chickens of the lib-left are heading home to roost.

The pious music you can hear in the background, emanating as steadily as greenhouse gas emissions,  is coming from three of the far left’s top dogs belting out “I love Pope Francis” hymns on their way to conversion.

n our upside-down world, hawks are doves; wolves are sheep; and the Three Tenors are now the Three Marxists.

First came President Barack Obama

:

“Obama called Francis “transformative,” saying the pope’s “insistence” that fighting poverty be at the heart of the Christian life has made him a global icon. (CruxNow, May 12, 2015)

“That emphasis is why he’s had such incredible appeal, including to young people all around the world, and I hope it’s a message everyone receives when he comes to visit,” Obama said Tuesday, referring to the pope’s September visit to the United States.”

“In particular,” Obama said, “I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is.” (KRCR News, April 22, 2015)

If the Pope were American he’d never be singled out for that kind of praise from Obama.  Since circa 2009, it’s been a mortal sin to be American.

Via: American Thinker

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CALIFORNIA: Revised Estimate for K-12 Spending: $6 Billion More Next Year

Spending for K-12 schools in the coming year will be $6 billion more than Gov. Jerry Brown proposed just five months ago, raising per-student spending $3,000 – 45 percent – from what it was four years ago, according to the revised state budget that the governor released on Thursday.

State revenues have surged this year, and K-12 schools and community colleges will haul in nearly every penny because of Proposition 98, the constitutional amendment that puts schools first in line for restoring funding when the economy rebounds after a recession.

The new level of Prop. 98 spending for K-12 schools and community colleges will be $68.4 billion in 2015-16. That is $7.5 billion more than the Legislature appropriated last June for the current year. Surging revenues, which are projected to continue into next year, will bring the total increase for schools next year to nearly $14 billion in Prop. 98 spending (see pages 13-22 of state budget summary).

MORE BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget includes money for special education reforms, adds funding for career technical education, and freezes UC tuition. See details.

But warning that “the reality is another recession is coming,” Brown is splitting the increase between ongoing spending, one-time expenditures and paying off debts.

Local Control Funding: The Local Control Funding Formula, which provides general spending to schools, will remain his top priority. It will get $6.1 billion more next year, or about $1,000 more per student on average, with districts with higher proportions of English language learners and low-income children receiving more.

Paying off mandates: About $3.5 billion ($2.4 billion more than in the January budget) will pay for unreimbursed mandated expenses. Districts and county offices of education can use this money however they want, although the governor is encouraging them to spend it on implementing the new Common Core and science standards.

Via: California Political Review

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How Many People Got Arrested for Last Night’s Biker Gang Shootout?

A shootout between rival biker gangs rocked Waco, Texas, Sunday night, leaving nine dead and eighteen wounded. The number of people arrested for the carnage: 192 and counting.

“In 34 years of law enforcement, this is the worst crime scene, the most violent crime scene that I’ve ever been involved in,” said police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton. “Dead people are still there. There’s blood everywhere. We will probably approach the number of 100 weapons that we’ve recovered.”

Police joined in the gunfire. Astoundingly, no officers or bystanders were injured.

“Within 25 feet there were families eating dinner,” Swanton said. “I was amazed that we didn’t have innocent civilians killed or injured.”

The fight reportedly started over a parking spot, but followed weeks of mounting tensions between upwards of five biker gangs who intersect at the restaurant, which the Texas Alcohol Commission is considering closing until things cool off. Officials said the restaurant had been “negligent” in not working with police before the shootout.

Police in central Texas have been on high alert ever since, following rumors that more bikers were on their way to the Twin Peaks restaurant, the site of the shooto

Via: Mediaite.com

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EXCLUSIVE–DR. BEN CARSON’S FUNDRAISING NUMBERS: MORE THAN $5.2 MILLION SINCE EARLY MARCH

Dr. Ben Carson’s presidential campaign shared his early fundraising numbers exclusively with Breitbart News, proving that he—like many other 2016 conservative presidential candidates—will be a force to be reckoned with on the campaign trail.

The numbers provided to Breitbart News in the middle of last week and published here for the first time, show that Carson has raised at least $5.2 million since his launch back in early May. Spokesman Doug Watts told Breitbart News that the $5.2 million since March 3, when Carson launched his exploratory committee, came “predominantly in small donations,” with $52 being the average.

Carson’s campaign is on the brink of surpassing 100,000 total donors—meaning that many people have given him money for his presidential campaign run—since March 3, as well. Since April 1—this fundraising quarter’s beginning—Carson’s team has raised $3 million. From March 3 until now, Carson’s team has pulled in $1.6 million in direct mail and about $600,000 over phones.

Since Carson launched his official presidential campaign on May 4 in Detroit, his team tells Breitbart News he’s raised $1.8 million in online fundraising. And over the past 18 months, all of Carson’s both official and unofficial committees—which include Carson America Exploratory, RBR, and the leadership PAC USA First—have pulled in $22 million.

Carson’s team is waiting for about a million pieces of mail that are currently out in stream right now to come back in, as well, meaning that the already-proven-prolific fundraiser will be pulling in quite a bit more cash very soon.

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] Ramadi Falls To ISIS, Pentagon Admits Terror Group 'Has The Advantage'

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, ISIS delivering a crushing blow to Iraq by overtaking Ramadi. So why is that city so important to both Iraq and American forces? Air Force veteran and Congressman Adam Kinzinger joins us. It's nice to see you, sir.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER, R-ILLINOIS: Nice to be with you.

SUSTEREN: Now it's Ramadi. We've had Mosul in June of 2014 and now on to Ramadi.

KINZINGER: It seems like we are basically in where's where list everywhere America fought hard to bring freedom to the Iraqi people. Mosul was a very long and drawn out battle. The American forces put a lot of blood and treasure into and Ramadi is the same way, billions of dollars, hundreds of lives.

It also represents a very important strategic point in the stealing of Western Iraq. If you look at supply lines from Jordan and Syria into Iraq, Ramadi plays a very important role. So this is devastating, if in fact the whole city falls.

SUSTEREN: Well, the other night, we had on the governor of the province where Mosul is. He said that all they need are weapons from the United States government and he can't get them, but they could have pushed ISIS out.

Via: Fox News

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Conservative Intellectual: Progressive Ideology ‘Dehumanizes The Population’ [VIDEO]

This English writer, prison doctor and psychiatrist has traveled the world, talked with the ordinary people elites avoid and warns America to stop its intellectual dishonesty to restore a healthy society.

He thinks his own country is incentivizing the decline of its culture with policies and has insightful suggestions for America, if we will only listen.

Anthony Daniels, who uses the pen name, Theodore Dalrymple, says the West is “too weak-willed,” “accepts obvious untruths” and “treats people as objects.” In this 28-minute video interview with The Daily Caller, he says “the intellectual dishonesty of the West is the greatest threat – we can’t say what we really think.” To him, the solution is to speak up and write, as he has with many articles and books, such as his 2007 one, “Our Culture, What’s Left of It.”

Dalrymple, based on his work in British prisons, is a critic of “determinism” — the dominant progressive theory that minimizes personal responsibility and portrays people as forced, by their circumstances, to behave as they do. Speaking here about prisoners who take heroin, he discusses this theory as it relates to what prisoners say about why they started taking heroin.

Via: Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Peggy Noonan On Hillary’s Press Strategy: ‘She’s Running A Silent Movie Of A Campaign’

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan took aim at the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s media strategy Sunday, telling “Face The Nation” Clinton is “running a silent movie of a campaign” as she dodges the press.

Noonan made the comments to host Bob Schieffer after giving credit to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for continuing to take questions from the media after he endured a tough week. Bush waffled on questions about the Iraq War.

BOB SCHIFFER: Peggy, this was a tough week for Jeb Bush.

 

PEGGY NOONAN: Yeah, It definitely was. He seemed consistently taken aback by the asking of a question anyone could have told you a year and two years ago was going to be primary question of the primary time. It was difficult for him in ways that are almost mysterious. And because I think he showed such discomfort in his answers, he sort of opened up the possibility that this will only be the beginning of many questions about things your brother did, would you have done them? Do you know what I mean? So, it was difficult.

However, he deserves, I think, great credit in this. He’s going to the press every day, he’s taking questions, he’s being out there, he’s doing sit-down interviews. Mrs. Clinton instead is doing, sort of, a silent movie of a campaign in which she doesn’t feel she has to do those things. I don’t think that’s a good way to go and will problematic for her down the road.

Via: Daily Caller

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OBAMA PUTS STRICTER CONTROLS ON MILITARY-STYLE FOR POLICE

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nine months after police in riot gear dispelled racially charged protests, President Barack Obama is prohibiting the federal government from providing some military-style equipment to local departments and putting stricter controls on other weapons and gear distributed to law enforcement.

The surprise announcement comes after the White House suggested last year that Obama would maintain programs that provide the type of military-style equipment used to respond to demonstrators last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, because of their broader contribution to public safety. But an interagency group found "substantial risk of misusing or overusing" items like tracked armored vehicles, high-powered firearms and camouflage could undermine trust in police.

With scrutiny on police only increasing in the ensuing months after a series of highly publicized deaths of black suspects nationwide, Obama also is unveiling the final report of a task force he created to help build confidence between police and minority communities in particular. The announcements come as Obama is visiting Camden, New Jersey, one of the country's most violent and poorest cities.

Obama plans to visit Camden police headquarters before heading to a community center to meet with youth and law enforcement and give a speech. "I'll highlight steps all cities can take to maintain trust between the brave law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line, and the communities they're sworn to serve and protect," Obama said in his weekly address out Saturday.

Via: AP

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Changes needed in Jade Helm military exercises

Over the past few weeks, my office has been inundated with calls referring to the Jade Helm 15 military exercise scheduled to take place between July 15 and September 15, 2015.

This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law.

Certainly, I can understand these concerns.

Rep. Louie Gohmert

When leaders within the current administration believe that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans, or even "cling to guns or religion," patriotic Americans have reason to be concerned.

We have seen people working in this administration use their government positions to persecute people with conservative beliefs in God, country, and notions such as honor and self-reliance.

Because of the contempt and antipathy for the true patriots or even Christian saints persecuted for their Christian beliefs, it is no surprise that those who have experienced or noticed such persecution are legitimately suspicious.

Having served in the U.S. Army, I can understand why military officials have a goal to see if groups of Special Forces can move around a civilian population without being noticed and can handle various threat scenarios.

In military science classes or in my years on active duty, I have participated in or observed military exercises; however, we never named an existing city or state as a “hostile.” We would use fictitious names before we would do such a thing.

Once I observed the map depicting "hostile," "permissive" and "uncertain" states and locations, I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution.

When the federal government begins, even in practice, games or exercises, to consider any U.S. city or state in "hostile" control and trying to retake it, the message becomes extremely calloused and suspicious.

Such labeling tends to make people who have grown leery of federal government overreach become suspicious of whether their big brother government anticipates certain states may start another civil war or be overtaken by foreign radical Islamist elements which have been reported to be just across our border.

Such labeling by a government that is normally not allowed to use military force against its own citizens is an affront to the residents of that particular state considered as hostile, as if the government is trying to provoke a fight with them.

The map of the exercise needs to change, the names on the map need to change, and the tone of the exercise needs to be completely revamped so the federal government is not intentionally practicing war against its own states.

Via: Highland County Press

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