Internet Reg. Cartoon

Walker: 'My view has changed' on immigration reform

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a presumptive 2016 Republican presidential candidate, says he has changed his immigration stance and no longer backs comprehensive reform that would allow illegal immigrants to be penalized but remain in the country.
“My view has changed,” Walker said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview taped Friday. “I’m flat out saying it.”
Walker in 2013 said a plan in which illegal immigrants can become United States citizens by first paying penalties and enduring a waiting period “makes sense.”
However, he is now saying such a plan is tantamount to amnesty, amid criticism that he has flip-flopped on that issue and others -- including right-to-work legislation in his home state.
“I don’t believe in amnesty,” said Walker, who finished second Saturday in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll for potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates. “We need to secure the border. We ultimately need to put in place a system that works -- a legal immigration system that works.”
Walker also is among the 25 Republican governors who have joined in a lawsuit challenging the president’s 2014 executive action that defers deportation for millions of illegal immigrants.
After calling the right-to-work bill in the Wisconsin Legislature a “distraction” during his 2014 re-election season, Walker now touts the GOP-backed plan, which essentially stops unions from collecting dues from non-union workers.
On Sunday, Walker said that “now is the perfect time” for the bill to be passed and for him to sign it.
Walker also attempted to further clarify comments he made Thursday during his speech at CPAC, the country’s largest annual gathering of conservative activists, in which he seemed to compare the Islamic State and union-backed protesters he has faced.
“I'm not comparing those two entities,” Walker said. “What I meant was, it was about … the leadership we provided under extremely difficult circumstances, arguably, the most difficult of any governor in the country, and maybe in recent times. To me, I apply that to saying if I were to run and if I were to win and be commander in chief, I believe that kind of leadership is what's necessary to take on radical Islamic terrorism.”

DOJ Clears Zimmerman: Holder's political pandering comes to predictable end

Eric Holder’s political pandering has finally come to a predictable end. The outgoing attorney general will not bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. Was there ever a doubt?
There was never a scintilla of evidence that the confrontation had anything to do with race or civil rights. But that did not stop Holder from abiding the racial hysteria ginned up by the Reverend Al Sharpton crowd. Nor did it stop President Obama from injecting race into a race-less case.

It seems inescapable that Holder chose to demagogue a tragic case to appease civil rights vocalists and burnish his liberal bona fides. If so, he elevated racial politics over the integrity of the law.

Never mind that a Florida jury acquitted Zimmerman last year of any culpability, finding that he acted purely in self-defense. Never mind that not a single witness testified that race was a factor. Forget that even the prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments that race played no role.
It didn’t matter to Holder that the FBI concluded more than two years ago that “there is no evidence the shooting was driven by racial bias or animus.”
None of that deterred Holder from reviving, after the verdict, his much publicized pursuit of a racially motivated crime where none existed. Let the grandstanding begin, facts be damned.
Any lawyer could tell you that what Holder was peddling amounted to pure fiction. But why?
It seems inescapable that Holder chose to demagogue a tragic case to appease civil rights vocalists and burnish his liberal bona fides. If so, he elevated racial politics over the integrity of the law.
Which is beyond shame. It is an abuse of power.

Democrats, Republicans accuse each other of trying to spin Netanyahu visit to their political advantage

The controversy over Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming congressional address intensified Sunday with Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of injecting too much politics into the event.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Netanyahu was welcome to speak in the United States and that the administration did not want the event "turned into some great political football."
Kerry made his remarks in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” that was broadcast before he left for more talks in Switzerland toward a long-term, multi-nation deal to keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu is set to arrive in Washington late Sunday and will press his opposition to a diplomatic accommodation of Iran's program in a speech Tuesday to Congress.
The prime minister says he is making the address out of concern for Israel's security.
House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu last month, without consulting the White House, to give a joint address to Congress.
The invitation was considered a diplomatic no-no and further exposed tensions between Israel and the United States.
Netanyahu’s acceptance further angered the White House and Democrats, who were forced to choose between showing support for Israel and backing the president.
Boehner, R-Ohio, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the White House has "attacked" him and Netanyahu over the issue.
“It has been, frankly, remarkable to me, the extent to which, over the last five or six weeks, the White House has attacked the prime minister, attacked me, for wanting to hear from one of our closest allies," Boehner said.
He defended his decision to extend the invitation, saying Netanyahu can talk about Iran’s nuclear threat better than anyone.
“And the United States Congress wants to hear from him,” he continued. “And so do the American people."
He also said the demand for seats in the House to hear the speech has been huge, despite some Democrats vowing to skip the event.
The White House has said it will not meet with Netanyahu while he is in a reelection effort with a March 17 vote.
Whether Vice President Biden will attend the event remains unclear.
However, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CBS that she plans to attend the event but won’t “jump up and down” like other members might.
She also took issue with Netanyahu saying he will be an emissary of the Jewish people, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” that he “doesn't speak for me on this."
Kerry’s remarks were a step back from Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, last week described the timing and partisan manner of Netanyahu's visit as "destructive" for the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
He also said that he talked to Netanyahu as recently as Saturday and argued that Israel is safer as a result of the short-term nuclear pact that world powers and Iran reached in late 2013.
Officials have described the U.S., Europe, Russia and China as considering a compromise that would see Iran's nuclear activities severely curtailed for at least a decade, with the restrictions and U.S. and Western economic penalties eased in the final years of a deal.
"Our hope is that diplomacy can work,” Kerry said. “And I believe, given our success of the interim agreement, we deserve the benefit of the doubt to find out whether or not we can get a similarly good agreement with respect to the future."
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Senate is pushing for a final say in the deal and wants to impose tougher sanctions on Iran should Tehran back out of a final agreement.
“The idea that Congress would sit on the sidelines and watch John Kerry, Susan Rice and Barack Obama negotiate with the Iranians … is just mind-boggling,” South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News’ “American's News Headquarters." “And I don't think we're going to let that happen.”
Graham also said six Democratic senators appear willing to side with Republicans on the issue.
Netanyahu also planned to speak Monday at the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
He considers unacceptable any deal that does not entirely end Iran's nuclear program. But Obama is willing to leave some nuclear activity intact, backed by safeguards that Iran is not trying to develop a weapon. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research purposes.

Iraqi forces reportedly begin attack to recapture Tikrit from ISIS

 Iraqi forces backed by Shiite and Sunni fighters have begun an offensive to recapture the northern town of Tikrit from ISIS militants, state TV reported Monday.
Al-Iraqiya television said that the forces were attacking the city, backed by artillery and airstrikes by Iraqi fighter jets. It reported that militants were dislodged from some areas outside the city, but gave no details.
Tikrit, some 80 miles north of Baghdad, fell into the hands of ISIS last summer along with the country's second-largest city of Mosul, and other areas in its Sunni heartland. The city, which has an estimated population of around 260,000 people, may be best known as the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Any operation to take Mosul likely would require Iraq to seize Tikrit first, as the town sits on the main road from Baghdad.
News of the offensive came hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on Sunni tribal fighters to abandon ISIS, warning that Tikrit "will soon return to its people."
Al-Abadi offered the Sunnis what he called "the last chance", and promised them a pardon during a news conference in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. His office said he arrived in Samarra to "supervise the operation to liberate Tikrit from the terrorist gangs."
"I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities," al-Abadi said.
The Iraqi military previously launched an operation in late June to try to wrest back control of Tikrit, but that quickly stalled. Other planned offensives by Iraq's military, which collapsed under the initial ISIS blitz, also have failed to make up ground, though soldiers have taken back the nearby refinery town of Beiji, backed by airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition.
Al-Abadi's comments appear to be targeting former members of Iraq's outlawed Baath party, loyalists to Saddam Hussein, who joined ISIS during its offensive, as well as other Sunnis who were dissatisfied with Baghdad's Shiite-led government. The premier likely hopes to peel away some support from the terror group, especially as Iraqis grow increasingly horrified by the extremists' mass killings and other atrocities.
In February alone, violence across Iraq killed at least 1,100 Iraqis, including more than 600 civilians, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq said Sunday. Last year was the deadliest in Iraq since its 2006-2007 sectarian bloodshed, with a total of 12,282 people killed and 23,126 wounded, according to the U.N.