Saturday, June 28, 2014

King Obama


Benghazi suspect, now on U.S. soil and in federal custody, could face judge Saturday


Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the Libyan militant charged in the 2012 Benghazi attacks, is in federal law enforcement custody and could face a judge as early as Saturday, authorities said.
Khatallah is being held at a federal courthouse in D.C. amid tight security, Department of Justice spokesman William Miller said.
He was flown to Washington by helicopter shortly after sunrise from a navy warship, where he had been held since his capture nearly two weeks ago.
Khatallah is accused of being involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Libya that led to the deaths of former U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
Stevens, 52, was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.
There’s a possibility that Khatallah could face a federal judge Saturday afternoon for an initial court appearance at which the government would outline the charges against him.
He almost certainly would remain in detention while the Justice Department seeks a federal grand jury indictment against him.
U.S. Special Forces captured Khatallah during a nighttime raid in Libya June 15-16, marking the first breakthrough in the investigation of the Benghazi attacks.
A newly unsealed criminal complaint accuses Khatallah of killing a person during an attack on a federal facility, a crime punishable by death; providing federal support to terrorists resulting in death; and using a firearm in a crime of violence.
U.S. authorities have said they are looking to identify and capture additional co-conspirators.
Khatallah, a prominent figure in Benghazi's circles of extremists who was popular among young radicals, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press in January that he was present during the storming of the U.S. mission in Benghazi. But he denied involvement in the attack, saying he was trying to organize a rescue of trapped people.
Prosecuting Khatallah will be a test of the Obama administration’s commitment to try suspected terrorists in the American criminal justice system even as Republicans in Congress call for Khatallah and others to be held at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Khatallah is one of just a few cases in which the administration has captured a suspected terrorist overseas and interrogated him for intelligence purposes before bringing him to federal court to face charges.

Thad Cochran's GOP runoff victory shows new angle to minority voting


Sen. Thad Cochran's GOP primary victory, thanks in part to black Mississippians who turned out to vote for him, exemplifies a new math that politicians of all persuasions may be forced to learn as this country's voting population slowly changes complexion.
Cochran's campaign courted black voters, perceiving their unhappiness with his Tea Party-supported opponent, Chris McDaniel, and his anti-government rhetoric and scathing criticisms of President Obama. Blacks responded by turning out to help give Cochran an almost 7,000-vote win. The use of Mississippi's open primary to further their agenda showed political maturity by black voters and debunked a longstanding belief that they obediently vote Democratic and not according to their own interests.
They turned out for a primary runoff with no Democratic candidate involved. And they voted Republican even though the smart play for the Democrats would have been to usher McDaniel to victory and create a more winnable contest for Democrat Travis Childers in November.
"I think that Thad Cochran is a shot across the bow to be felt for a long time," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was the first minority presidential candidate to win a statewide primary or caucus in 1984 and 1988. "You cannot win in the new South or win in national elections with all-white primaries. This is a new America today."
Tests of this assertion are coming next month in Alabama and Georgia, also Southern states with large minority populations and open primaries. The Mississippi race may be a harbinger of more strategic voting for minority voters, especially African Americans, said D'Andra Orey, a political science professor at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi.
"This is not a one-time situation," Orey said. "Blacks do recognize their power in the vote, and in this particular case, blacks saw that they could actually defeat or be a strong influence ... in defeating McDaniel."
In Mississippi, which is 38 percent black and on track to become the country's first majority-black state, some black voters said they planned to support Cochran, a six-term incumbent, again in November. Others said they would keep their options open in November or vote for the Democrat, even though they considered Cochran a better choice than McDaniel in the red state.
"I just think that McDaniel did as much for the Cochran turnout in the black community as Cochran people did," said Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi's sole black congressman.
Agitating minority voters may soon prove politically risky anywhere in the nation: The numbers of black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American voters are growing not only in presidential election years but in off-cycle elections as well, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In presidential election years, the percentage of black voters eclipsed the percentage of whites for the first time in 2012, when 66.2 percent of blacks voted, compared to 64.1 percent of non-Hispanics whites and about 48 percent of Hispanics and Asians.
The number of African-American and other minority voters has also been increasing during off-cycle, non-presidential elections. For example, in the 2010 congressional and statewide elections, 47.8 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 40.7 percent of blacks, 21.3 percent of Asians and 20.5 percent of Hispanics voted.
But the only groups to increase their numbers were blacks and Hispanics, who voted at 38.6 percent and 19.3 percent respectively in 2006 congressional and statewide elections. The white and Asian participation rate dropped during that same time period from 50.5 percent and 21.8 percent.
And black participation in off-year elections has been steadily increasing since 1994, when it was 37.1 percent. In 1998, it 39.6 percent, in 2002 39.7 percent and a slight dip in 2006 at 38.6 percent. No other group showed a similar increase.
Black voting increased during the Mississippi GOP primary. Statewide turnout increased by almost 70,000 votes over the June 3 primary, with turnout in majority-black counties growing by 43 percent, while in counties where blacks are less than a majority, it grew 17 percent.
Carol M. Swain, a law and political science professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, doubted those voters would become Republicans but said they could become swing voters in some races. "I believe they may have purchased some influence with the Republican establishment that could benefit blacks in the long run," Swain said.
Democrats, in return, plan to address more African American issues in upcoming campaign, but they have been warned not to take those votes for granted. At a recent meeting with black journalists and advocates, several U.S. senators were warned that some black voters had noticed that Democrats had no problem talking about veterans' issues, women's issues or LBGT issues, but seemed hesitant to talk about and address black issues on the Senate floor.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he could understand how "off-putting" it could be that Democrats "are all about equality and all about the big tent, but we're talking about other folks and not us," a loyal voting base.
"I hadn't really thought about our strong advocacy on these diversity issues actually could have an undercurrent of 'We must not be that important because you're not talking about us the same way,'" Kaine said.
Recognition of that can only be a good thing for minority voters, Swain said.
"The positive thing to come out of this is that more white candidates and incumbents will campaign among black voters, and maybe they will deliver more," she said.

Differences between a Democrat and Republican

Bailey: A Democrat wants someone else to take care of all their problems. A Republican believes in taking care of  the problem themselves. Simple answer to the question about why stupid lazy people like bigger government.


Democrat Hilary


ObamaCare whistleblower claims retaliation, Republicans cry foul



A political storm has erupted in Washington state involving a whistleblower who claims she was retaliated against after raising concerns about ObamaCare's implementation. 
Patricia Petersen, a hearings officer in the state's Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC), filed a whistleblower complaint alleging coercion and corruption in the OIC, which is tasked with implementing the Affordable Care Act. She said Chief Deputy James Odiorne threatened her job if she didn’t rule the way Commissioner Mike Kreidler -- a supporter of the law -- wanted. 
"If a judge is told by a party to decide his cases in a certain way, or one party can threaten the judge’s job if the case is not decided in that party’s favor, then this central pillar of our democratic society is corroded,” Petersen said at a recent hearing called by the Senate Law and Justice Committee. 
One of the cases before Petersen involved Seattle Children’s Hospital, the premiere pediatric care facility in the Pacific Northwest. The hospital was kept out of the state health care exchange by Kreidler, who deemed Seattle Children’s care too expensive. 
Kreidler, speaking to Fox News in October 2013, said: “You’re going to find that their business plan needs to be altered in order to really be competitive in the marketplace, so they’re offering services at the most reasonable price.” 
But after Petersen granted Seattle Children’s Hospital a hearing to appeal Kreidler’s decision, Odiorne wrote this in a job evaluation: “Since your orders are legally the acts of the Commissioner, they must be orders that he supports.” 
Republican lawmakers cried foul. 
“She has to be completely independent,” said Republican state Sen. Randi Becker. “She has to be able to make her decisions, her rulings, based upon law, not upon somebody’s desire.” 
Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley, a Democrat, denied Petersen’s request for whistleblower status. Kelley wrote, “There are other avenues available for addressing your assertion.” 
Petersen was then placed on paid leave and became the subject of an investigation for mailing a copy of her original complaint to an attorney who represents Seattle Children’s Hospital. She claims the "ex parte" communication was an inadvertent mistake. 
But several Democrats say Petersen is wrong about her independence. She is a 28-year employee in the OIC and, according to some, is Kreidler’s designee. 
“It’s his work,” said Democratic state Sen. Adam Kline. “She is sitting at his desk when this happens. And she is emphatically not an independent judge.” 
The OIC website seems to contradict that claim. In the section on appealing the commissioner’s rulings, the department writes, “Administrative hearings are legal proceedings to review the commissioner’s action before an impartial judge.” It later states, “The decision of the Chief Presiding Officer becomes the final decision of the agency and is not subject to review by the Commissioner or any member of his staff.” 
Paul Guppy, a senior policy analyst for the Washington Policy Center, a libertarian-leaning think tank, said the scandal is driven by support for a law that won’t work on its own to lower the cost of health care. 
“As the Affordable Care Act is pushed in Washington state, more and more of these contradictions emerge, and this case is just one of them,” Guppy said. 
The insurance commissioner declined Fox News' request for an interview, saying the office was conducting its own independent personnel investigation. The lawyer doing the probe was selected by his office.
Dan Springer joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in August 2001 as a Seattle-based correspondent.

CartoonsTrashyDemsRinos