Conservative Happenings

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Americans are coming! Some in a Texas county fear an Obama-led U.S. military invasion.

By Kevin Sullivan July 4 at 8:32 PM

BASTROP, Texas — The office of the Bastrop County Republican Party is in an old lumber mill on Main Street, with peeling brown paint and a sign out front that captures the party’s feelings about the Obama administration: “WISE UP AMERICA!”

Inside, county Chairman Albert Ellison pulled out a yellow legal pad on which he had handwritten page after page of reasons why many Texans distrust President Obama, including the fact that, “in the minds of some, he was raised by communists and mentored by terrorists.”

So it should come as no surprise, Ellison said, that as the U.S. military prepares to launch one of the largest training exercises in history later this month, many Bastrop residents might suspect a secret Obama plot to spy on them, confiscate their guns and ultimately establish martial law in one of America’s proudly free conservative states.

They are not “nuts and wackos. They are concerned citizens, and they are patriots,” Ellison said of his suspicious neighbors. “Obama has really painted a portrait in the minds of many conservatives that he is capable of this sort of thing.”

Across town at the Bastrop County Courthouse, such talk elicits a weary sigh from County Judge Paul Pape, the chief official in this county of 78,000 people. Pape said he has tried to explain to folks that the exercise, known as Jade Helm 15, is a routine training mission that poses no threat to anyone.

Pape chaired a public meeting this spring and invited a U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman to answer questions about Jade Helm. The meeting drew more than 150 people carrying signs that read “No Gestapo in Bastropo,” “Keep America Free” and “Dissent is Not a Conspiracy Theory.” Some asked whether the Army was bringing in Islamic State fighters, if the United Nations would be involved, and whether the military was planning to relieve local gun owners of their firearms.

Via: Washington Post

White House-Linked Dark Money Group Threatens Democrats on Eve of Nuke Deal

A prominent progressive organization linked to the White House and claiming to work for dozens of like-minded groups is threatening to attack any congressional Democrat who objects to a final nuclear deal with Iran, even before the terms of any such agreement have been finalized, according to an email obtained by the Free Beacon.

CREDO Action, the political arm of CREDO Mobile, declared this week in an secret email to journalists that it will punish congressional Democrats who fail to line up behind any deal sealed between the West and Iran.

“Democrats in Congress are the only remaining obstacle to finalizing today’s historic deal,” Zack Malitz, campaign manager for CREDO, said in a statement emailed to reporters on July 2, along with a note that details of the email were not to be published until a deal was actually announced. “Every Democrat should go on the record right now in support of the deal, and pledge to defend it from attacks in Congress.”

“Republicans will try to sabotage the deal and take us to war, but they can’t do it without Democratic votes,” Matlz wrote. “Progressives will hold accountable those Democrats who vote to help Republicans sabotage the deal and start a war.”

Via: WFB

Democrats Pursue a No-Veto Strategy on Spending Bills

President Barack Obama has issued just four vetoes so far in his presidency, and it appears he won't be taking out the veto pen for a host of contentious fiscal 2016 spending bills, either — despite threats he's already lodged on seven of them.

Democrats instead are stonewalling the appropriations measures by keeping them from coming up for debate in the Senate, even though they could instead allow Obama to take the heat by issuing vetoes. That would let Democrats escape tough-to-defend votes on defense spending, veterans' benefits and more. But Democrats are having none of it, saying that the "regular order" process that would lead to a veto is a time-waster and they want negotiations on a budget deal launched now — a strategy that may or may not work.

“I have heard senators on the other side urge us to follow the process, which means spending weeks on the floor and more weeks in conference, only to send the president a bill he would veto,” says Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the full Appropriations Committee.

In her view, it’s up to Congress, not the president, to change the law and lift the spending caps that Democrats say are too constraining. “We need a new budget deal that ends sequester for defense and non-defense," says Mikulski. "On our side, we are saying let’s not waste the rest of June, July and August, only to come to a crisis point in September. Instead, let’s come to the table now and not when we are threatened with shutdowns and showdowns.”

'Draw the Line'

Allowing Obama to issue vetoes would seem to make sense. The president is a lame duck with an approval rating that hit 50 percent in a CNN poll for the first time in more than two years as he enjoys one of the best periods of his presidency, so he's got some political capital to spend. At just four vetoes, his record doesn't come close to that of other recent presidents, though of course there's many months left in his tenure.

But, most importantly, a veto from Obama would blunt Republicans' exploitation of defense votes.

Witness the Senate's $576 billion Defense appropriations bill (HR 2685), which Democrats blocked from consideration in June. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear just how the GOP will characterize Democrats’ action on it: “Our Democratic friends have curiously just last week voted for the troops by approving the defense authorization bill,” the Kentucky Republican said, “and then turned around and voted against the troops on the bill that would actually fund their pay raises and the other things that these volunteers depend on.”

And yet, Democrats seem unconcerned with this line of attack. Particularly instructive is the case of Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., a moderate in a purple state with a re-election in 2018.

Via: Roll Call

Now fix congressional redistricting

On this July Fourth, it is worth celebrating a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, lifting the smoke screen laid by John Boehner to stall action on plans to draw fair, competitive U.S. House districts in Ohio. The court upheld the right of Arizona voters to create an independent commission to draw U.S. House districts. It turned back a challenge from the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature, which wanted to regain control.

As House speaker, Boehner used his influence to cloud discussion in the Ohio legislature, also dominated by Republicans. The expressed concern was that the state should not move forward until the Arizona case was resolved. Actually, what is under discussion here would leave the legislature with a dominant role in the redistricting process, the parallel to Arizona a stretch, at best.

When the Arizona legislature sued, it took a narrow reading of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the “times, places and manner” of holding congressional elections “shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.”

What the lawsuit failed to consider was that Arizona voters, in initiating a constitutional amendment, were acting in place of the legislature. In a 5-4 decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg found the U.S. Constitution’s reference to the “legislature” included ballot measures such as the one Arizona voters passed in 2000 to create an independent commission.

It now is time for the Ohio legislature to repair how U.S. House districts are drawn here, using as its model a proposed constitutional amendment on state legislative districts that it has placed on the November ballot. Instead of state lawmakers drawing new U.S. House districts after each census, the job would go to the same commission that would be created for state legislative districts.

The seven-member body would be composed of the governor, auditor and secretary of state, plus four legislators, two from the minority party. With incentives to encourage bipartisan action and rules to minimize the splitting of communities, the state’s U.S. House districts would come into better balance.

As matters stand, districts created by the Republican-led legislature do not reflect the real balance of power between Republicans and Democrats. In a state where Barack Obama won twice, and which elected Sherrod Brown to the U.S. Senate, Republicans control 12 of 16 U.S. House seats. Without sufficient competition, extreme views easily can take hold.

In the state Senate, Frank LaRose, a Copley Township Republican, and Tom Sawyer, an Akron Democrat, have long worked on redistricting reform and are ready to introduce an amendment for U.S. House districts that would mirror the bipartisan plan for legislative districts. In the House, a similar idea has been introduced by two Democrats, Mike Curtin of Marble Cliff and Kathleen Clyde of Kent.

With lawmakers on summer break, action by the August deadline for placing another constitutional amendment on the fall ballot is unlikely. But once back in session, the legislature should make sure an amendment on U.S. House districts gets on the ballot next year. If lawmakers fail to act promptly, voter advocates should take charge with a petition drive.

Via: Ohio.com

Not Everyone Likes the Fourth of July-Themed Al Jazeera Video that Mocks Americans as Fat, Gun-Toting Racists

Al Jazeera’s digital media platform AJ+ posted a Fourth of July-themed video mocking Americans as fat, cheese-eating, gun-toting, pill-popping, racist porn watchers.

While some on social media applauded the creation, others slammed the Qatar-owned network for using the holiday “to dump” on America.

Social media users got particularly riled up by the criticism coming from the channel owned by Qatar — a country where stoning is a legal punishment under Shariah law, women have second class legal status, writers can be imprisoned for criticizing the emir and abuse of foreign laborers has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups.

The video is sarcastically titled “Americans Show Why USA Is The #1 Country In The World.”

After lauding the U.S. as world leader in Olympic medals, Nobel laureates and billionaires, young actors then go on to mock the U.S. for “the most incarcerated people in the world. God-bless the prison industrial complex.”

“When it comes to obesity … a third of us can’t even see our own toes,” said a man waving an American flag.

Another assertion left the impression that nine out of 10 Americans have guns.

“Pew Pew, we’ve got 90 guns per 100 persons. Sorry, Yemen, we beat you in drones and guns!” said one of the actors.

“Americans consume 80 percent of the world’s painkillers. Makes sense though, right? I mean racism in this country is a big pain in the ass,” said a female actor.

Al Jazeera also credited the U.S. with having the “most number of teen pregnancies per capita,” leading the world in credit card debt and “the most deaths by lawnmower.”

“This sort of seems mean spirited to be honest,” Benjamin Buzbee wrote on YouTube. “It’s important to keep perspective and some of these are important issues, but the spirit of this video is to dump on the US the day before independence day – seems more sensationalistic than journalistic. Can’t say I approve.”

Via: The Blaze

People with Prior Knowledge of Charleston Shooter’s Plans May Face Charges

The investigation continues into Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof and what led him to take nine innocent lives at the Emanuel AME Church. Well, reports now indicate Roof was in touch with others who may end up facing charges for their involvement.

According to South Carolina paper The State, there were other people (possibly other white supremacists) who potentially had knowledge of Roof’s plans to target a black church, and they may face charges ranging from lying to the police to failure to inform law enforcement about advanced knowledge of a crime.

The New York Times notes that these individuals did not necessarily “encourage” Roof to kill innocent people, but Roof was in enough contact with hate groups on his electronic devices that it’s possible they knew his plans.

Both state officials and the Department of Justice are investigating the shooting.

Via: Mediaite

[VIDEO] ‘I SALUTE DONALD TRUMP!’ – TED CRUZ DEFENDS COMMENTS ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Ted Cruz came out to defend the toupeed Trumpet on his comments about illegal immigration without approving of the rhetoric he used.

Watch below:

BOOM! Suck on THAT, mainstream media!!

An aggregation of polls this morning show that Trump has come out ahead of the presidential pack with a slight lead. Could we be seeing a Cruz/Trump ticket coalescing before our very eyes?!?!

The answer is no.

Via: The Right Scoop

[VIDEO] Obama Leaves Out ‘God’ From 4th of July Weekly Address

As Obama’s term as President is slowly nearing its end, more and more of who the man is, and what he truly stands for, is beginning to seep out.

For instance, President Obama released his 4th of July weekly address for 2015 with one key ingredient missing: God.

Unlike his weekly addresses during the previous two years, where the President concluded his speeches with “God Bless You All” (2014) and “So, God bless You All. And may God bless The United States of America” (2013), Obama left out any mention of God in his recent address. Instead, this year, he chose to end his speech with a very politically correct, “Thanks, everybody. From my family to yours, have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

Here’s the transcript:

“Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

The White House

July 4, 2015

Happy Fourth of July, everybody. Like many of you, Michelle, Sasha, Malia, and I are going to spend the day outdoors, grilling burgers and dogs, and watching the fireworks with our family and friends. It’s also Malia’s birthday, which always makes the Fourth extra fun for us.

As always, we’ve invited some very special guests to our backyard barbecue – several hundred members of our military and their families. On this most American of holidays, we remember that all who serve here at home and overseas, represent what today is all about. And we remember that their families serve, too. We are so grateful for their service and for their sacrifice.

We remember as well that this is the day when, 239 years ago, our founding patriots declared our independence, proclaiming that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

A couple of centuries later, we have made ourselves into a big, bold, dynamic, and diverse country. We are of all races, we come from all places, we practice all faiths, and believe in all sorts of different ideas. But our allegiance to this declaration – this idea – is the creed that binds us together. It’s what, out of many, makes us one.

And it’s been the work of each successive generation to keep this founding creed safe by making sure its words apply to every single American. Folks have fought, marched, protested, even died for that endeavor, proving that as Americans, our destiny is not written for us, but by us.

We honor those heroes today. We honor everyone who continually strives to make this country a better, stronger, more inclusive, and more hopeful place. We, the people, pledge to make their task our own – to secure the promise of our founding words for our own children, and our children’s children.

And finally, what better weekend than this to cheer on Team USA – good luck to the U.S. Women’s National Team in the World Cup Final!

Thanks, everybody. From my family to yours, have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

Via: Gateway Pundit

The wrinkle in the Affordable Care Act decision

“What chumps!”

— Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., June 29, 2015

Roberts’s intellectual complexity does not prevent him from expressing himself pithily, as he did with those words when dissenting in a case from Arizona. Joined by Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., Roberts’s dissent should somewhat mollify conservatives who are dismayed about his interpretive ingenuity four days earlier in writing the opinion that saved the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, they, including this columnist, may have missed a wrinkle in Roberts’s ACA opinion that will serve conservatives’ long-term interests.

To end gerrymanders, Arizona voters, by referendum, amended the state’s constitution to strip the legislature of its control of redistricting. They created an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) on which no member of the legislature may serve.

However, the U.S. Constitution’s elections clause says, “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” When Arizona’s legislature sued, the IRC’s implausible response was: The Constitution’s Framers did not use the word “legislature” as it was then and still is used, to denote the representative bodies that make states’ laws. Rather, the IRC said the Framers used “legislature” eccentrically, to mean any process, such as a referendum, that creates any entity, such as the IRC, that produces binding edicts.

Implausibility is not an insurmountable barrier to persuading a Supreme Court majority, and last week five justices accepted the IRC’s argument. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said: There is “no suggestion” that when the Framers stipulated that the manner of a state’s elections should be determined by “the legislature thereof” the Framers necessarily meant “the state’s representative body.”

This detonated Roberts, who began his dissent by saying: The reformers who waged “an arduous, decades-long campaign” to achieve ratification in 1913 of the 17th Amendment establishing popular election of U.S. senators could have saved themselves the trouble. They could have adopted what Roberts calls the “magic trick” the majority performed regarding Arizona. What chumps the reformers were for not simply asserting this: Sure, the Framers stipulated that two senators from each state were to be chosen “by the legislature thereof,” but the Framers really meant “by the people.”

Via: Washington Post

[VIDEO] Trump Hits Back at Rivals on Immigration: 'No One Else Knows Where to Begin'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Saturday slammed fellow challengers Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush for their attacks on his statements about illegal immigration — charging that both Florida politicians are soft on the issue.

"I am very proud to be fighting for a strong and secure border," the billionaire businessman told Newsmax in a statement. "This is a very important issue, which all the other candidates would have ignored had I not started this important discussion.

"I will fix the border. No one else knows where to begin," Trump said.

In New Hampshire, Bush said that he was "absolutely" offended personally by Trump's comments in his June 16 campaign announcement. Bush's wife, Columba, is from Mexico.

"I don’t think he represents the Republican Party, and his views are way out of the mainstream of what Republicans think," Bush after attending to Independence Day parades in the state, The Washington Post reports. "No one suggests that we shouldn’t control our borders — everybody has a belief that we should control our borders.

"But to make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments is not reflective of the Republican Party. Trump is wrong on this.

"He’s doing this to inflame and to incite and to get to draw attention, which just seems to be the organization principle of his campaign," Bush added. "It doesn’t represent the Republican Party or its values."

Trump snapped back Saturday, saying that "Jeb Bush once again proves that he is out of touch with the American people.

"Just like the simple question asked of Jeb on Iraq, where it took him five days and multiple answers to get it right, he doesn’t understand anything about the border or border security.

"In fact, Jeb believes illegal immigrants who break our laws when they cross our border come 'out of love,'" Trump said.

He was referring to Bush's waffling in March over whether he would not have ordered the Baghdad invasion in 2003 — after days of avoiding the question and being attacked by rivals — and his comments in an interview the month before on immigration.

Trump, too, accused Bush of trying to inflame tensions among Hispanics.

"As everybody knows, I never said that all Mexicans crossing the border are rapists. Jeb is mischaracterizing my statements only to inflame."

The developer referenced Wednesday's shooting of a 23-year-old San Francisco woman by an illegal immigrant, Francisco Sanchez, 45, who has seven felony convictions and has been deported five times.

"As seen with the tragic and unnecessary death of Kathryn Steinle this past week in San Francisco at the hands of an illegal immigrant who was previously deported five times, our unsecured border is a national security threat," Trump said.

"Jeb will never be able to secure our border, negotiate good trade deals, strengthen our military or care for our veterans.

"The biggest difference between Jeb and me on the border is that I believe in securing our border by building a wall, which will protect our safety, economy and national security.

"This is a vital step in making America great again."

Earlier Saturday, Trump blasted both Rubio and former New York Gov. George Pataki for their attacks earlier in the week.

Rubio said in a statement Friday that "Trump’s comments are not just offensive and inaccurate, but also divisive. Our next president needs to be someone who brings Americans together — not someone who continues to divide.

"Our broken immigration system is something that needs to be solved, and comments like this move us further from — not closer to — a solution," the first-term senator added. "We need leaders who offer serious solutions to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system."

Pataki wrote a letter to all the Republican presidential candidates this week calling on them to speak out against Trump and his remarks.

"I know Pataki well," Trump told Fox News on Saturday. "He was a terrible governor of New York. Terrible.

"If he would have run again, he wouldn't have gotten anything," he added. "He was a failed governor.

"And, you know, as far as Rubio, he is very weak on immigration — and he I have been saying that for some time," Trump said.

He praised another candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz — who vowed in a "Meet the Press" interview to be aired Sunday that he was not going to participate in "Republican-on-Republican violence" — saying that he respected the Texas senator.

Trump's comments have also been attacked by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in New Hampshire Saturday that the remarks reflected poorly on the Republican Party.

"I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans, and it's unfortunate," Romney told CNN during one of the holiday parades.

When asked whether more GOP candidates should call out Trump, Romney responded: "I think a number of them have."

Via: Newsmax

SSA Can’t Collect Overpayments Without Wasting Money

The Social Security Administration (SSA) spends more money than it collects when trying to recover payments to individuals who received benefits for which they were not eligible.

According to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the SSA issued $128.3 million in “low-dollar” overpayments between 2008 and 2013, and then spent $323 million to collect them. The agency ultimately recovered only $109.4 million.

“This resulted in SSA spending over $213.6 million more than it collected,” the OIG said, in an audit released Wednesday.

The OIG defines an overpayment as “benefit payments greater than the amount to which individuals are entitled.”

The overpayments were distributed through the SSA’s Retirement and Survivors Insurance (RSI), Disability Insurance (DI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. The SSA issued approximately $16.8 billion in disability insurance overpayments alone in the past decade.

“Generally, SSA attempted to collect overpayments regardless of the amount,” the OIG said. “In some cases, the value of the overpayment was less than what SSA spent to collect the overpayment. Therefore, for some overpayments, collection was not always cost-beneficial.”

A “low-dollar” overpayment is less than or equal to the agency’s average cost to retrieve an overpayment.

It cost the SSA an average $164.11 to collect each RSI overpayment, $268.32 for each disability insurance overpayment, and $56.63 for each SSI overpayment in 2013, according to the agency’s Cost Analysis System (CAS).

However, the OIG found errors within the accounting system. The CAS was not able to take into account SSI overpayments that took more than one step to recover. Some overpayments can take as many as five actions by the agency in order to get the money back, costing $283.15 for a single overpayment.

“Therefore, it is not possible to determine how much the average cost to collect an SSI overpayment in CAS is understated when multiple actions are required to collect an SSI overpayment,” the OIG said.

“The time and effort involved to identify an overpayment can vary greatly. Several factors affect how long it can take to identify the correct overpayment amount, such as the reason for the overpayment, how long the overpayment spanned, and whether there are auxiliary beneficiaries eligible on the record that may be affected,” they said.

The audit suggested the SSA could potentially have saved up to $3.2 billion if it was able to divert the millions it spent collecting low-dollar overpayments elsewhere, the OIG said.

The agency uses full medical Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) to determine if beneficiaries are in fact still disabled and eligible to receive benefits. By putting the $323 million into processing additional CDRs, the SSA could have reduced its backlog of 1.3 million beneficiaries awaiting reviews in 2013. Each review has a return on investment of $10 for the agency.

“However, the Budget Control Act of 2011 capped the amount of additional new budget authority SSA could use for CDRs and SSI redeterminations for FYs 2012 through 2021,” the OIG said. “Therefore, SSA had limited authority to use these resources for other workloads.”

Via: WFB

[VIDEO] Fox Panelist Rips Trump: ‘Negotiate with Mexico? He Can’t Even Negotiate with Macy’s!’

Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign has given conservatives and Republicans lots of mixed feelings. But Fox’s Eric Bolling, at least, continues to be one of Trump’s biggest cable news defenders. On today’s Cashin’ In

Panelist Jonathan Hoenig, however, wasn’t quite on board. He told Bolling, “He’s not just a fool, but he’s a fraud… Negotiate with Mexico? He can’t even negotiate with Macy’s!”

And quite frankly, Bolling was the only one really defending Trump. Wayne Rogers said “if Trump can’t survive in the free market, that’s his problem,” while Michelle Fields said she’s not a Trump fan and that NBC probably did the right thing (even if they hypocritically embrace Al Sharpton and Brian Williams).

Bolling still defended Trump, arguing that he’s bringing “fresh new ideas” and is someone willing to stand up for America. Rogers pointed out that there are other candidates who fit that description already, while Hoenig made it abundantly clear he just really doesn’t like Trump.

Presidents, he said, don’t make over-the-top threats and don’t “alienate America’s major corporations.” Hoenig pointed out how Trump used to be a Democrat, and when Bolling talked about getting someone with a different kind of track record in the White House, Hoenig said, “Trump’s got a record of bankruptcy.”

Via: Mediaite

Sunday, July 5, 2015

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