Thursday, March 31, 2016

Rubio Cartoon


Sanders off the DC primary ballot after Dems bungle paperwork

Clinton fights off challenge from Sanders in New York 
Sen. Bernie Sanders' name will not appear on the Washington, D.C., primary ballot at this point, after Democrats failed to turn over Sanders' paperwork in time.
The Democratic Party failed to submit Sanders' primary registration paperwork on time to the D.C. Board of Elections. While the party received paperwork and fees from both Sanders and Hillary Clinton's campaign, it only turned over Clinton's forms on time.
That means as of today, Clinton is slated to appear on the ballot, but Sanders isn't, according to a report by NBC-4. Sanders' campaign said it handed in its forms and $2,500 in fees earlier this month and ahead of schedule.
Democrats did not inform the board of its oversight mistake until a day after the March 16 registration deadline, which will create another hurdle to including him. A Washington, D.C., voter has already filed a challenge against Sanders' eligibility.
The Democrats called the incident a minor administrative dispute, according to NBC's reporter Tom Sherwood. Party chairwoman Anita Bonds, a member of the city council, said the city could choose to fix the problem by holding an emergency vote.

Rubio moves to keep delegates on lockdown until convention, to 'stop Trump'

Spoiler 
Marco Rubio is moving to lock down his delegates until the Republican convention so no one else can claim them just yet, in an unconventional move that represents the latest bid to stall Donald Trump’s front-running campaign – and perhaps give the Florida senator and ex-candidate a bigger role to play in July.
A Rubio spokesman confirmed the push Wednesday, while suggesting it’s more an effort to thwart Trump by denying him the necessary delegates than to somehow get Rubio back in the game in the event of a contested convention.
"Of course, he's no longer a candidate and wants to give voters a chance to stop Trump," spokesman Alex Burgos told FoxNews.com.
Rubio is making his personal appeal in a letter to the chairs of state Republican parties across the country, the entities that decide how to divvy up delegates.
While some of the senator’s delegates might otherwise be allowed to support other candidates before the July convention, Rubio is asking that those delegates be “bound” to him through at least the first round of voting at the convention.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by FoxNews.com, says the decision to suspend his campaign was “not intended to release any National Convention Delegates bound to me as a result of the 2016 delegate selection process that took place in your State.
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“It is my desire at this time that the delegates allocated to me by your rules remain bound to vote for me on at least the first nominating ballot at the National Convention.”
According to MSNBC, Rubio is sending the letter to parties in all 21 states and territories where he won delegates.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Rubio had 171 delegates to his name. In a normal year, such a delegate haul might not matter much – but in the competitive 2016 GOP primary race, keeping all those delegates off the field could potentially keep Trump from clinching the nomination pre-convention with the necessary 1,237.
Trump currently has 736; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 463; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 143.
Under the complex set of rules governing each state’s primary, dozens of Rubio’s delegates – though not all of them -- would normally become “unbound” before the convention and free to vote for whomever they choose.
Ever since Rubio suspended his campaign, those delegates have been an attractive target for the remaining candidates. Barry Bennett, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, recently told FoxNews.com the campaign already had started “going after” the “unbound” delegates.
“We aren’t going to waste resources on them, but if you’re 'wooable' we plan to woo,” Bennett said.
It’s unclear whether any sizeable number of Rubio’s delegates would back Trump anyway, as Rubio himself describes Cruz as the only true conservative left in the race. But Rubio’s letter-writing push is an attempt to prevent Trump from peeling off any before the convention.
MSNBC reported that the chairman of the Alaska GOP already has agreed to grant Rubio’s request.
Alaska previously had divvied up Rubio's five delegates to Trump and Cruz. However, since the actual people have not been selected yet, the state party said the delegates will go back to Rubio.
In Oklahoma, state party Chairwoman Pam Pollard said she also received a letter from Rubio saying he has not released his 12 delegates from that state.
Meanwhile, the three remaining Republican candidates are ramping up efforts to win over Rubio's delegates, in addition to claiming dozens more unbound delegates, in the contentious battle for the 1,237 delegate majority.
Acknowledging a late start in the nuts-and-bolts business of political wrangling, Trump's campaign will open a Washington, D.C. office in the coming days to run its delegate operation and congressional relations team, Bennett told the AP. In addition to the new space, Trump has hired a veteran political operative to serve as the campaign's convention manager. Paul Manafort, a seasoned Washington hand, will oversee the campaign's "entire convention presence" including a potential contested convention, said Bennett.
There are certain states where the allocation of delegates to the GOP convention is so complicated that they could produce outcomes where a candidate who did not prevail in a given primary might yet win that state’s delegates to the convention.
Trump has vowed to both file a lawsuit and an internal challenge within the Republican National Committee over reports that Cruz, despite losing the Louisiana primary to Trump in early March, could draw the support of enough “unbound” delegates and from Rubio supporters to actually overtake Trump in the state by as many as 10 delegates.
Asked on March 15 if he was preparing for a contested convention, Cruz told Fox News, “We make preparations for every contingency.”

Trump walks back statement on women being punished for abortion if procedure banned


Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump quickly walked back a statement he made earlier Wednesday that if abortion were illegal in the United States, then women who have the procedure should be punished - saying later that only those who performed the procedure should be punished.
“If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman,” Trump said in a written statement. “The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb.”
Earlier, at a taped MSNBC town hall to be aired later Wednesday, Trump said if abortions were illegal, women should be held responsible.
Host Chris Matthews pressed Trump to clarify, asking him whether abortion should be punished and who ultimately should be held accountable.
“Look, people in certain parts of the Republican Party, conservative Republicans, would say, ‘Yes, it should,’” Trump said.
The candidate later put out a statement saying: “This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination.”
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Trump’s comments come at a time when he’s losing traction with women voters.
When asked specifically at the town hall what he thought, the New York businessman answered, “I would say it’s a very serious problem and it’s a problem we have to decide on. Are you going to send them to jail?”
“I’m asking you,” Matthews prompted.
“I am pro-life,” Trump said.
Matthews pressed on, asking again who should be punished in an abortion case if it were illegal.
“There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said.
“For the woman?”  Matthews asked.
“Yeah,” Trump responded, adding later that the punishment would “have to be determined.”
His rivals seized on the remarks. Ohio Gov. John Kasich later told MSNBC “of course women shouldn’t be punished.”
An aide to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted: “Don't overthink it: Trump doesn't understand the pro-life position because he's not pro-life.”

Supreme Court appears skeptical about feds applying Clean Water Act to family biz properties


For decades, the Pierce family has operated a peat-mining business that involves draining muddy bogs, scraping away the plant material, drying it, then selling it for use in golf greens and athletic fields.
The company hoped to add hundreds of acres to its operation. But in 2011, the Army Corps of Engineers announced the Minnesota land in question was connected to the Red River, roughly 120 miles away, and would be subjected to the Clean Water Act permitting process.
The property rights dispute landed Wednesday in the Supreme Court, where Justice Anthony Kennedy called the federal act “quite vague in its reach, arguably unconstitutionally vague ... ."
The property owners are fighting for the right to challenge the corps’ findings in federal court, while the corps argues the landowners cannot do so without going through a time-consuming permitting process that will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We're talking about the effect, direct effect on millions of land owners nationwide, couldn't be a bigger precedent,” said the plaintiffs' attorney, Reed Hopper of the Pacific Legal Foundation.
With the exception of Justice Elena Kagan, the court seemed nearly unanimous in its skepticism about whether the property is indeed “wetland” and subject to the act.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the process “arduous and very expensive.”
“It’s going to take years and cost ... a lot of money," she also said.
Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Steward, the federal government’s attorney, argued the landowner could simply roll the dice by moving ahead with developing the land despite the court’s findings.
That prompted Justice Stephen Breyer to respond: “Then he goes to jail.”
A decision is due by the end of June.
Kevin Pierce, one of three land/ business-owners in the case -- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co. Inc. -- has not been willing to take such a risk.
"We could have expanded a couple of years ago and different things,” he said outside of the court room. “But we've been held up because of the threat of high fines and criminal charges and all of the things that come out of the corps and jurisdictional determination.
Critics of President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination, Merrick Garland, say the case is the kind they’re worried about if Garland is appointed to the high court, considering his overwhelming deference to federal agencies.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Welfare Stamp Cartoon


States moving to restore work requirements for food stamp recipients

States moving to require able adults to work for welfare 
States are moving to once again require able-bodied adults to put in work hours in exchange for food stamps, after the requirements largely were suspended by the Obama administration.
The slow-moving reversal follows the administration pulling back on Clinton-era changes that required recipients to work for government welfare benefits. Signing the reform bill in 1996 alongside then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, then-President Bill Clinton said the goal was to make welfare “a second chance, not a way of life.”
But during the last recession, President Obama allowed states to suspend a requirement that able-bodied adults without children work at least 20 hours per week or participate in a training program to receive benefits for more than three months.
He allowed recipients to stay on food stamps indefinitely, arguing the three-month maximum was unfair with unemployment at 10 percent.
"Food stamp recipients didn't cause the financial crisis, Wall Street did," said Obama at this past January’s State of the Union address.
Unemployment today is half of what it was in 2009, yet last year more than 40 states did not require welfare recipients to work.
Kansas was one of the first states to reverse that in 2013.
"I believe most Americans and most Kansans think it's common sense," said Andrew Wiens of the Kansas Department for Children & Families. "These are able-bodied adults without dependents. They don't have children in the home. They're not elderly, they're not disabled. These folks should be working."
Since Kansas reinstated work rules, food stamp rolls 
dropped by 20,000 and the incomes of those who left increased by 127 percent, Wiens said.
The state also imposed limits on how recipients could use their benefits after finding some enrollees used their welfare cash and food stamps cards on cruise ships.
"Those benefits should be used for necessities," Wiens said. "You can't use them at casinos, strip clubs, massage or tattoo parlors."
Maine followed the Kansas lead in 2014. In the first three months, the number of able-bodied adults without children on food stamps fell by almost 80 percent. It also cracked down on recipients using their welfare benefits out of state after finding hundreds of Maine residents used their EBT cash cards at or near Disney World.
"Maine found millions of dollars being spent in Florida," said Josh Archambault of the Foundation for Government Accountability. "That raised all sorts of red flags."
Another red flag -- a Maine state employee recognized the name of a large state lottery winner. It turned out the state did not require an asset test, allowing food stamp recipients to have vacation homes, multiple cars and lottery winnings and still qualify. After a 2015 state study found 4,000 welfare recipients won more than $22 million in the state lottery funds, Maine imposed a limit on assets.
"An individual could win a half million dollars," said Archambault. "In the month they receive the lump sum they may not qualify because it counts as income. The very next month and every month going forward, they can legally sign up for food stamps."
Since 2010, nearly 4,000 welfare recipients in Maine won $1,000 or more. Eleven of them won 10 or more times, and eight individuals won prizes in excess of $500,000.

Trump stands by campaign manager charged with battery over alleged reporter grab

Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to stand by his campaign manager who was charged with misdemeanor battery over allegations he grabbed the arm of then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, as the aide maintained his innocence.
The Republican front-runner told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview he saw “virtually nothing” in the surveillance tapes of the incident.
“I’m very glad that we were able to produce the tape because I don’t see anything.  I see virtually nothing,” he told Hannity. “And we’re going to destroy a man’s life over this?”
Lewandowski initially denied the incident had taken place, telling Fields over Twitter he had never even met her. Trump also backed Lewandowski, telling reporters a few days later that "everybody said nothing happened. Perhaps she made the story up, I think that’s what happened.”
However, the Jupiter Police Department obtained video from the ballroom that it says parallels Fields' version of events, and subsequently charged Lewandowski. Trump said a surveillance system he had set up in the ballroom captured the incident.
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“If I had not have produced the tape, it would have been much worse,” Trump told Hannity. “Because look at the statement she made, I had to write it down, ‘forcefully thrown reporters to the ground, campaign managers aren’t supposed to forcefully throw campaign managers to the ground’.  What ground?  I mean, if you look at her face, her expression doesn’t even change.”
Earlier on Tuesday, while on his campaign plane, Trump said that Fields was seen running up and grabbing him after a news conference which he claimed she was "never supposed to do," and that Lewandowski was trying to block Fields from "grabbing and asking questions."
“She grabbed me and she had something in her hand, I don’t know what it was,” Trump told Hannity. “It looked like it could have been a pen. But you know, from the standpoint of where we are, who knows what it is.  So she grabs me and then he maybe brushed her aside, and we’re going to destroy his life for that?  I don’t think so.”
He called the situation "very unfair" to Lewandowski, one of his closest advisers. He says he hopes the matter doesn't change Lewandowski's role on his campaign.
“I think this was very unjust, nobody called me, nobody interviewed me,” Trump said “I wasn’t interviewed by the police.”
The police report says Lewandowski "grabbed Fields left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back."
The Trump campaign issued a statement Tuesday calling Lewandowski “absolutely innocent.”
“Mr. Lewandowski was issued a notice to appear and was given a court date. He was not arrested. Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in a statement. “He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated.”
Lewandowski is due to appear in court on May 4th to face one count of simple battery.
Ted Cruz's campaign said the incident is indicative of the culture of the Trump campaign.
"Unfortunately, this abusive behavior seems to be part of the culture of the Trump campaign. Personal attacks, verbal attacks, and now physical attacks have no place in politics or anywhere else in our society," campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart said in a statement.
Cruz said during a town hall Tuesday night that if Lewandowski was his campaign manage, he would ask him to resign.
"It shouldn't be complicated," he said. "The members of the campaign staff shouldn't be physically assaulting the press."
Meanwhile, John Kasich's campaign strategist John Weaver called Lewandowski a "bully" and said he would have already been fired if he worked for the Ohio governor.

 

Trump rescinds pledge to back Republican nominee; Cruz, Kasich refuse to commit support

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would no longer honor his pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee for president, while fellow candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich refused to say whether they would back the party's pick.
All three GOP contenders appeared at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee one week before Wisconsin's April 5 primary.

When he was asked if he would keep the pledge he signed last September, Trump responded "No, I won’t." The real estate mogul explained that he was taking back the pledge because, "I have been treated very unfairly", and listed the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party and party establishment among those he believes have wronged him.
Cruz, who is running second to Trump in the delegate race, shrugged off the question of whether he would support Trump in November, saying "Donald is not going to be the GOP nominee. We're going to beat him." The Texas senator added that nominating Trump "would be an absolute train wreck" and "would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton."
Trump, who followed Cruz on the town hall stage, said he didn't need a promise of support from Cruz.
"He doesn’t have to support me," he said.
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Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has vowed to keep his campaign going until this summer's convention in Cleveland despite being a distant third in the delegate count, also didn't say whether he'd stand by the pledege.
"If the nominee is somebody I think is really hurting the country, and diving the country, I can't stand behind them," Kasich said.
Trump has 736 delegates and is the only candidate with a realistic path to clinching the nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7. However, a Cruz win in Wisconsin would narrow Trump's already tight path to the nomination and raise the prospect of a contested convention in Cleveland.
Trump told supporters at a rally that "if we win Wisconsin, it's pretty much over," noting his significant delegate lead over both Cruz and Kasich. Trump held the rally in Janesville, Wis., hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan — who last week called for more civility in politics even as the Republican presidential race grew more personal and nasty.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a former GOP presidential contender, endorsed Cruz Tuesday, saying he believes the Texas senator is best positioned to win the GOP nomination and defeat Clinton.

Families of US military, government workers ordered home from southern Turkey

U.S. officials ordered families of U.S. service members and government workers to return home from southern Turkey on Tuesday due to what they called "continued security concerns in the region."
On Monday, Sky News reported Islamic State terrorists were planning an "imminent" attack on Jewish schools in Turkey, citing intelligence sources.
The Pentagon and State Department said dependents of American staffers at the U.S. consulate in Adana, the nearby Incirlik air base and two other locations must leave. The so-called "ordered departure" notice means the government will cover relocation costs. Officials said relatives of essential Chief of Mission personnel could stay.
U.S. jets operating out of Incirlik have been conducting strike missions against ISIS since late last year.
In addition, the State Department on Thursday warned all Americans to avoid traveling to the region, especially to areas near the Syrian border. "Stay away from large crowds, including at popular tourist destinations," the department added in a statement.
The move affects 670 family members or other "dependents," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said. The move would take place "relatively quickly," he added.
"The decision to move our families and civilians was made in consultation with the Government of Turkey, our State Department, and our Secretary of Defense," Gen. Philip M. Breedlove of U.S. European Command said. "We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong Ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism."
Defense officials said they did not plan to keep families of U.S. personnel out of Turkey permanently. They also cited the need to preserve the military's "combat effectiveness" there.
The State Department and Pentagon had begun a voluntary drawdown of staff last September after Turkey announced it would take a greater role in the fight against ISIS. At the time, military officials said they had recommended the voluntary departure from Incirlik because of specific calls by militants for lone wolf attacks against the air base.
The new announcement comes one day after Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to travel to Washington for a global nuclear security summit scheduled to get underway on Thursday.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

ICE Cartoon


ICE operation nets more than 1,100 arrests in five weeks

Federal agents announced Monday they swept up nearly 1,000 suspected drug traffickers, human smugglers, sex traffickers and murderers during a widespread five-week operation aimed at landing a punishing blow against transnational criminal gangs.
The operation, dubbed Project Shadowfire, drew on cooperation between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as well as other state, local and federal law enforcement officers.
The resulting 1,133 arrests included: 1,001 criminal arrests; 915 gang members and associates; 239 foreign nationals from 13 countries in Central America, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean; 132 immigration violations.
“This operation is the latest example of ICE’s ongoing efforts, begun more than a decade ago under Operation Community Shield, to target violent gang members and their associates, to eradicate the violence they inflict upon our communities and to stop the cash flow to transnational organized crime groups operating overseas,” ICE Director Sarah R. Saldana said in a statement.
Agents also seized 150 firearms, more than 20 kilos of narcotics and more than $70,000, according to an ICE news release.

States' rights advocates eye convention to bypass Congress, amend Constitution

What if a supermajority of states could override a federal law or Supreme Court ruling?
That’s just one idea being proposed by advocates of a “convention of states” to amend the U.S. Constitution.
"The American people are mad and they’re looking for a way to say, ‘No more,’” said Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. “Our founders, in their brilliance, gave us a tool to do that. And it’s Article V.”
Article V of the Constitution allows a minimum of two-thirds of the states to call for a convention to propose amendments, in turn going around Congress.
The push to do so has proceeded in fits and starts over the last several years, driven by a desire for states to debate a range of constitutional changes dealing with everything from campaign finance reform to balanced budgets. So far, six states have signed on — Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Florida, Indiana and Tennessee. Indiana was the latest to sign on, approving a resolution endorsing the effort earlier this month.
But organizers would need another 28 to bring their plan to fruition, and call the convention. If they reach that level of support, states would be entering uncharted territory.
“It has never happened before in the history of the United States,” said Robert Schapiro, dean of Emory University School of Law.
In an election cycle that has defied conventional wisdom, though, supporters of a convention of states believe right now may be the very best time to try something different.
“The mood of the public is tired of business as usual,” said Buzz Brockway, a Republican state representative who sponsored Georgia’s convention of states resolution.
Brockway told Fox News he believes such a convention could achieve consensus on such issues as campaign finance reform, term limits and balanced budgets. Even if states fall short of the two-thirds supermajority needed to call for a convention to propose amendments (and the three-quarters required to ratify them), Brockway said the effort itself could encourage change.
“In the ‘80s, President Reagan actually came out and said he was in favor of a balanced budget convention,” Brockway said. “That spurred Washington to act. And they didn’t actually pass a balanced budget amendment, but they came extremely close. So, I think at the worst case, this will spur Congress to action. The best case, we’ll have actual amendments that are proposed that states can consider.”
Schapiro has doubts about how far the effort will go.
“There have been efforts before to have states call for a constitutional convention. And with regard to certain issues, states have come fairly close,” he said. “But, given the divided times which we face, and given the broad brush of these amendments, I think it’s unlikely to garner the kind of support that would be necessary actually to reach that two-thirds benchmark.”

Days after visit, Fidel Castro slams Obama, recounts history of aggression

Just days after Barack Obama concluded his historic three-day visit to Cuba, former leader Fidel Castro published an op-ed piece attacking the U.S. president.
In a 1,500-word bristling column published in the Communist government’s official newspaper on Monday, Castro, 89, recounts the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba. Referring to Obama, he wrote: "My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn't try to develop theories about Cuban politics."
Obama did not meet with Fidel Castro but met several times with his brother Raul Castro, the current president.
Obama's visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban government that a half-century of U.S. attempts to overthrow the Communist government had ended.
But in his column, titled "My Brother Obama," the older Castro all but mocks the U.S. president's efforts. He goes over crucial sections of Obama's speech line by line, engaging in an ex-post-facto dialogue with the American president with pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama's failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro's prohibition of racial segregation after coming to power in 1959.
“Obama delivered a speech in which he used the most honeyed words to say: ‘It's high time to forget the past, let’s leave the past behind, look to the future, let's look at it together, a future of hope. And it will not be easy, there will be challenges, and to those we will give time; but my stay here gives me further hope of what we can do together as friends, as family, as neighbors, together,’” Castro wrote in Granma, the government’s newspaper.
“We were supposed to risk a heart attack upon hearing these words of the President of the United States. After a merciless blockade that has lasted almost 60 years? And those who have died in the mercenary attacks on Cuban ships and ports, an airliner full of passengers detonated in midair, mercenary invasions, multiple acts of violence and force?’ Castro wrote.
He added: “Nobody should be under the illusion that the people from this noble and selfless country will renounce to the glory and the rights, and to the spiritual wealth it has earned with the development of education, science and culture.”
He ends with a dig at the Obama administration's drive to increase business ties with Cuba. The Obama administration says re-establishing economic ties with the U.S. will be a boon for Cuba, whose centrally planned economy has struggled to escape from over-dependence on imports and a chronic shortage of hard currency.
“I warn you that we are capable of producing the food and material wealth we need with the effort and intelligence of our people. We do not need the empire to give us nothing. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, because it is our commitment to peace and brotherhood of all human beings living on this planet.”

EgyptAir plane hijacked, flown to Cyprus after passenger claims to have bomb belt

BREAKING: A passenger claiming to be wearing a suicide bomb belt seized control of an EgyptAir flight from Alexandria to Cairo and ordered it flown to Cyprus Tuesday morning.
The Airbus A320 landed at the airport in Larnaka, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean island, at approximately 8:45 a.m. local time (1:45 a.m. ET).
Hours after the plane landed, all but four of the plane's passengers, as well as the cabin crew, had been allowed to leave the aircraft, according to EgyptAir. The airline described the four passengers still on the plane as foreigners, but did not give their nationality.
Egyptian state television identified the hijacker as Ibrahim Samaha, a professor of veterinary medicine at Alexandria University. It was not immediately clear what his motive may have been.
Egyptian government spokesman Hossam al-Queish told the private CBC TV network that Samaha initially wanted the plane flown to Istanbul, Turkey, but was told by the captain that he did not have enough fuel for the journey.

There were conflicting reports on the number of passengers and crew on the plane. An initial statement from Egypt's aviation authority said there were 81 passengers on board and five crew members on board. A revised statement reported by state media in Cyprus said that there were 55 passengers and seven crew members on board.
A Cypriot official told the Associated Press that 56 passengers had left the aircraft after the hijacker released them.
The director of the Alexandria airport, Hossni Hassan, told the Associated Press there were 26 foreigners on board, including eight Americans, four Britons, four Dutch, two Belgians, a French national, an Italian, two Greeks and one Syrian. He said three other foreigners could not be identified.

Sky News reported that the short-haul Flight 181 took off from Alexandria at 8 a.m. Cyprus time. The hijacker contacted the control tower in Lanarka 30 minutes later and was given permission to land.
Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, told the Associated Press that the flight showed no signs of distress on its route to Cyprus.
"It looks like a completely controlled flight aside from the fact it was hijacked," Petchenik said.
Reuters, citing an Israeli military source, reported that Israel scrambled warplanes in its airspace as a precaution in response to the hijacking.
The hijacking will most likely bring to the fore again the question of security at Egyptian airports, five months after a Russian aircraft crashed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula minutes after it took off from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. All 224 people on board were killed in the crash. Russia later said an explosive device brought down the aircraft and the extremist Islamic State group (ISIS) said it downed the plane.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Washington Budget Cartoon


Trump's daughter, Ivanka, gives birth to third child


 Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is a grandfather — again.
The billionaire businessman's daughter, Ivanka Trump, has given birth to her third child with husband Jared Kushner.
Ivanka Trump announced the birth of her son, Theodore James, on Twitter Sunday, saying that the family feels "incredibly blessed."
Donald Trump, who has frequently made mention of his daughter's pregnancy while campaigning for the Republican nomination, has not yet made any public statements on the birth of his eighth grandchild.
Ivanka is the second of three children Donald Trump had with ex-wife Ivana Trump.

After big promises, House GOP facing reality of not passing budget, and backlash


Few people in Washington think House Republicans this year will complete a budget.
That’s a little astonishing.
Republicans have batted around dozens of ideas. They’ve conducted closed door meetings. Entertained options. And still, House Republicans aren’t much closer to solving the budget riddle than they were when conversations began over the winter.
“The leadership has been on a listening tour for three months,” said Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va. “We have to go back to constituents and say we made up for the crap sandwich. Made up for the barn cleaning.”
What Brat refers to is a plan President Obama forged last fall with then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to “clean the barn” for the next speaker.
Both houses of Congress approved the package, and Obama signed it into law. Only 79 House GOPers voted in favor of the measure in late October -- including new House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
The deal established what’s called “discretionary” spending numbers for this fiscal year and fiscal 2017, which begins in October 1.
“We are being asked to validate a spending level that the vast majority of Republicans in the House and Senate opposed months ago,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “Let’s do a budget and spend less money. I think that’s what voters are demanding after what you’ve seen in the presidential contest. We make this stuff way too complicated.”
A brief dive into the complicated stuff:
All federal spending is allocated into two chunks. “Mandatory” spending is what the government has to spend on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the debt.
Congress long ago passed laws that put these programs on automatic pilot. Mandatory spending consumes more than two-thirds of all federal dollars each year. That money just floats out the door without anyone raising a finger.
“Discretionary” spending is the rest. It’s discretionary because lawmakers have discretion over how much to spend and on what programs. Discretionary dollars account for the remaining third of all annual government spending.
In Boehner’s barn cleaning, the duo set discretionary spending for fiscal 2016 at $1.067 trillion. They raised it for fiscal 2017 to $1.070 trillion.
But here’s the issue: Congressional conservatives are pushing for $30 billion in reforms to mandatory spending programs. That could reduce the discretionary number to $1.047 trillion. That would make it challenging for the House to approve annual spending bills to fund the government after October 1.
Conservatives have pushed for deep cuts and reductions since Republicans claimed the House in 2010. They made minimal progress in the debt-ceiling agreement of 2011 that resulted in sequestration -- deep, required spending limitations on the discretionary side of the ledger.
But the mandatory spending side is much larger than the discretionary side. That’s why reforms to entitlements make more impact. And conservatives want proof that savings aren’t fiscal fairy dust.
“It needs to be real,” Jordan said.
What counts as “real?” A plan Obama would in fact sign into law.
“That would be pretty real,” Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said when asked about moving a measure that would earn the president’s signature.
“It’s got to be this year,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas. “Real cuts that actually get signed into law.”
Conservatives think the GOP-led House has never made good on promises lawmakers made to constituents to reduce overall federal spending. Hence, that’s why they want to show they’re making amends for Boehner’s barn cleaning.
That’s why Republicans can’t cobble together the votes to approve a budget. The Republican brass needs the help of at least some of the 40-plus members who comprise the House Freedom Caucus. But there will be no budget if party divisions remain this deep.
Harley-Davidson stopped manufacturing motorcycle sidecars five years ago. Most bartenders can mix a sidecar cocktail with cognac, Grand Mariner and lemon juice. It’s unclear if House Republican leaders are devotees of Easy Rider or experienced mixologists.
But if the House will produce a budget this year, the production of budgetary “sidecars” are key to the entire enterprise.
“That’s getting warm,” said Brat of the sidecar possibilities. “We’re willing to go there.”
One sidecar option is for the House to approve a budget for fiscal 2017 at the $1.070 trillion level, but include a separate package that mines $30 billion in cuts from mandatory programs.
There is also conversation about approving a budget at a lower spending threshold -- with an agreement that Obama would sign actual spending bills into law with higher dollar figures.
Conservatives feel burned before on broad agreements. It’s customary for policymakers to commit to spending cuts but postpone the hard stuff well into the future.
Conservatives want to get away from that kind of gimmickry.
“We could have $30 billion (in cuts) over ten years with most of the savings in the ninth and tenth years,” said Huelskamp with a smirk, knowing the way Washington usually does things.
Notably, Huelskamp wasn’t endorsing punting the savings until the out years.
The House Budget Committee last week approved a budget that balances the books in a decade and slashes spending by $6.5 trillion.
Included in that budget is a repeal of ObamaCare. But keep in mind that congressional budgets aren’t binding and not signed into law. They’re aspirational.
The panel passed the budget. However, Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., knew there were several GOPers who voted yes in committee who would vote no on the budget on the floor. Dave Brat and Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., voted no in committee.
There’s a problem with not doing a budget. Failing to agree to an overall topline for mandatory and discretionary spending makes it virtually impossible for lawmakers to begin approving annual appropriations bills that fund the government.
There is a parliamentary failsafe that Ryan could deploy to help initiate the appropriations bills. It’s possible the House could simply hook some language to another measure and “deem” that it passed a budget -- even if it really hasn’t.
In Congress, “deeming” a budget at least starts the appropriations process. But Ryan is ruling out such a tactic.
“No,” he said. “We need to do a budget.”
Regardless, the House Appropriations Committee prepared its first spending bill of the year a few days ago.
The committee sketched a plan to spend $81.6 billion on military construction projects and fund the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill represents $1.2 billion less than what Obama requested but is $1.8 billion above what lawmakers spent last year.
Of course, if the House can’t OK a budget at all -- or even deem a budget -- it’s likely Congress is stuck and must approve a gigantic interim spending bill in September to avoid a government shutdown.
Only some Republicans would be likely to vote for it. The GOP leaders would probably again turn to Democrats to bail them out.
And this is precisely what got Boehner in trouble with House Republicans: leaning on Democrats all the time to do the tough stuff.
A stopgap spending bill means the military construction/VA measure gets less money -- as do all of the other appropriations bills in the big, catchall bill.
That’s because not doing a budget and relying on old spending figure kicks the total discretionary figure back to what the government is spending this year: $1.067 trillion -- a cut of $3 billion.
As former House Budget Committee chairman, Ryan is the high priest of budgets. He authored multiple fiscal blueprints that Republicans embraced. He chastised Democrats when they failed to produce budgets.
This is why Ryan and Republicans know why it’s so important to produce a budget and adopt it on the floor. This is all on them. But as speaker, Ryan can only attest to the virtues of budgeting. This fight is internal, Republicans on Republicans.
Last time, they blamed Boehner. But he isn’t here anymore.
“Once Obama leaves office, there is nobody left to blame,” Huelskamp said.

Cruz slams Obama's foreign policy after Brussels attacks, says 'enough is enough'


Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday took aim at President Obama's foreign policy in the wake of the Brussels terror bombings, calling the president's policies a "manifest disaster" and saying the U.S. "needs a commander in chief who will lead."
Cruz has specifically targeted Obama’s plans to allows refugees from war-torn Syria into the United States and has argued that U.S. law enforcement should have more authority to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods before their residents become radicalized.
“Enough is enough,” Cruz told “Fox News Sunday.” “We need a commander in chief who will protect this nation. … This is a policy of weakness and appeasement.”
Cruz’s original comments were quickly criticized by Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, the New York City police department and others.
And NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News on Sunday in which he said the department already patrols and secures Muslim neighborhoods but doesn’t engage in “selective enforcement” based on race or religion.
“Nor will we use the police and an occupying force to intimidate a populace or a religion to appease the provocative chatter of politicians seeking to exploit fear,” he wrote.“We already patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods, the same way we patrol and secure other neighborhoods."
Authorities have linked one of the Brussels attackers to the deadly Paris bombings in November, with ISIS claiming responsibility for both strikes.
Cruz pointed out the terror group has vowed to try to slip its fighters into the Syrian refugee program, which could increase the risk of a terror attacks on U.S. soil.
Cruz also said Europe’s immigration policies, which have allowed millions of Muslim refugees to enter the region, have created a "hotbed of racialization."
“We cannot become Europe,” he said.
Cruz said that in calling for stepped-up policing in Muslim neighborhoods he meant addressing problems by using "every tool" including law enforcement, the military abroad and the country's national security and intelligence communities.
He also condemned GOP rival Donald Trump's attack on Cruz's wife, Heidi, and a tabloid story suggesting Cruz might have had extramarital affairs.
“Attacks on a spouse have no place in politics,” Cruz said.
He added that Trump’s recent suggestion that the U.S. withdraw from NATO would be a huge mistake and shows his “lack of understanding” of foreign policy. He claimed such a move would be a “massive victory” for both Russian President Vladimir Putin and ISIS.

Sanders sweeps in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, but too little too late?


Sen. Bernie Sanders won nearly three dozen delegates Saturday in sweeping the Alaska, Washington and Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses, but the strong, comeback victories failed to cut substantially into front-runner Hillary Clinton’s big lead.
Sanders needs to win 67 percent of the remaining delegates and uncommitted super-delegates through June to clinch the Democratic nomination. And so far he's winning only 37 percent.
There were 162 delegates at stake Saturday -- Washington with 101, followed by Hawaii with 25 and Alaska with 16.
The Vermont senator won 55 delegates, compared to 20 for Clinton. However, more will likely be allocated to Sanders in several weeks, when the Washington state Democratic Party releases vote shares by district.
Still, Clinton still maintains a wide advantage in delegates, winning 1,243 to Sanders' 975 based on primary and caucuses to date.
Her lead is even bigger when including super-delegates, or party officials who can back any candidate they wish. Clinton has 1,712 to Sanders' 1,004, with 2,383 needed to win.
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Still, Sanders sounded optimistic Sunday about his chances.
“Our calculations are that in fact we can win the pledge delegates,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have the momentum. We have won five out of the six last contests in landslide fashion. … And the reason is the issues that we are talking about -- a corrupt campaign finance system, the disappearance of the American middle class, … kids graduating college $50,000 in debt.”
To be sure, Sanders had a good Saturday, which he hopes will give him some momentum as the primary-caucus season moves to the Midwest, Northeast, then to the West Coast, including California with 546 delegates at stake in June.
Sanders won Alaska 81-to-18 percent over Clinton; 68-32 in Hawaii and 73-26 in Washington, with all precincts having reported.
The self-described democratic socialist on Saturday night acknowledged his struggles in earlier contests across the South, with its strong conservative voting bloc, but struck an optimistic tone.
"We knew things were going to improve as we headed west," he said at a rally in Madison, Wis. "We are making significant inroads in ... Clinton's lead. ... We have a path toward victory."
The next Democratic and Republican primaries are April 5 in Wisconsin. Other big, upcoming primaries include Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, Clinton’s home state.
Sanders is popular among younger and more progressive Americans but continues to struggle to connect with Hispanic and African-American voters.
He was expected to do well in Washington, considering residents of Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest, are among the most liberal in the country and major campaign contributors.
He drew more than 10,000 supporters at an outdoor rally Friday evening in Seattle. And the state appeared to have a record voter turnout, similar to others that have helped keep alive Sanders’ insurgent campaign.
Most of Washington’s Democratic leadership endorsed Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Still, Sanders entered Saturday’s contests optimistic after winning more delegate than Clinton in three contests earlier last week -- nearly 20 in the Idaho and Utah caucuses, despite losing the marquee Arizona primary to the former secretary of state.
Sanders has done significantly better in caucus contests, now winning 10 of the last 12.
Most of his 15 primary-season wins have been in states with largely white populations and in the caucus contests, which tend to attract the most active liberal Democrats.
While Sanders faces a steep climb to the nomination, Clinton’s recent losses highlight her persistent vulnerabilities, including concerns about her trustworthiness and weak support among younger voters.
Clinton has been looking past the primary contests and aiming at potential Republican challengers.
She did not hold a public event after the Saturday’s results were announced.
But in interviews, rallies and speeches last week, she largely focused on Tuesday's deadly attacks in Brussels, casting GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as unqualified to deal with complicated international threats.
Her campaign sees the April 19 contest in New York as an important one, not just because of the rich delegate prize but because losing to Sanders in a state she represented in the Senate would be a psychological blow.
She hopes to lock up an even larger share of delegates in five Northeastern contests a week later.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter Bunny Cartoon





After bleak week, Pope Francis offers Easter message of hope



Pope Francis was wrapping up a bleak week in Europe by presiding Saturday night over a solemn vigil service and ushering in Easter celebrations with a message of hope.
Francis entered the silent and darkened St. Peter's Basilica with just a single candle guiding him at the start of the Easter Vigil service. As he reached the altar, the basilica's flood lights turned on in a symbolic show of light after the darkness of Jesus' crucifixion.
During the lengthy service, which is due to end just before midnight, Francis is to baptize 12 adults hailing from around the world. A few hours hours later he'll preside over Easter Sunday Mass and offer his annual Easter blessing.
Francis is expected to offer a message of hope following his bleak condemnations on Good Friday and earlier of the attacks by Islamic extremists in Brussels and elsewhere.
During remarks Friday at the Colosseum capping the "Way of the Cross" procession re-enacting Jesus' crucifixion, Francis denounced the "terrorist acts committed by followers of some religions which profane the name of God and which use the holy name to justify their unprecedented violence."
While the pope was at the Colosseum, his chief alms-giver was out on the streets of Rome giving out sleeping bags to the homeless Friday night in a show of papal support for the city's least fortunate.

Even the Man Suing Trump For Age Discrimination is Voting for The Donald


Further proof that Donald Trump is unstoppable. Even Ed Bals, the 81-year-old man suing Trump’s company after he got canned at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck says he’d vote for Trump.
“The only way I can explain it is I don’t think Mr. Trump knew what happened, because if he did, I wouldn’t have been relieved, he’s that type of person,” Ed Bals told USA Today. “I don’t have a grudge against him.”
Bals sued Trump in federal court in 2014. He was the manager of the upscale men’s locker room at the New Jersey club when he was fired (at the age of 77). Bals now works as a taxi driver. In the lawsuit, he claims each year before he was terminated, he was given a bonus for “exemplary work” and maintained an “excellent friendship with the golf course members.”
So why vote for Trump after all this?
“I’ve voted for all sorts of people, but I feel like the other politicians have all BS’d us and have us upset,” Bals told USA Today. “I’m a traditionalist, and saw WWII, and saw what the country stood for then.”
Bals said he ran into Trump a few times at the club, and admired him for bringing the golf course back from financial turmoil. In the lawsuit, Bals is seeking to get his job back, damages and attorney’s fees. As you’ve heard before, Trump says he doesn’t like to settle. But, maybe, just maybe, on this one. he’ll make an exception.

New FBI Filings Reveal ‘Pending Investigation’ Into Clinton’s E-Mails is Far From Over


A pair of declarations submitted to a federal judge by the FBI late Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by Vice News reveal new details about the Bureau’s “pending investigation” into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server (“Clinton Server”) that tend to indicate the matter is far from over.
In December, Vice News filed a FOIA lawsuit against the FBI seeking to obtain information related to the Clinton Server, including:
1.  Any and all emails and other records retrieved from the server, thumb drive, and any other electronic equipment obtained either directly or indirectly from Hillary Clinton (collectively and individually the “Clinton Server”) which has not already been made public; and

4. Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the Clinton Server; and
Late on Friday, the FBI filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, asking the Court to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the requested information is exempt from release pursuant to FOIA Exemption 7(A) because the release of records responsive to the requests could reasonably be expected to interfere with an active law enforcement proceeding.  The FBI also filed a pair of declarations in support of its summary judgment motion to provide the Court with a more detailed explanation and justification for the assertion of FOIA Exemption 7(A) to withhold records responsive to Vice’s request.
In the first declaration, David A. Hardy, the chief of the FBI’s FOIA office, states that the FBI has withheld two records responsive to Request #4 that consist of “memoranda from the FBI to the Department of State regarding evidence” and the “purpose of these communications with the Department of State was to solicit assistance in furtherance the FBI’s investigation.”  Furthermore, the “FBI concluded that the disclosure of these records … could reasonably be expected to reveal the nature, scope, and focus of the FBI’s activities in the investigation….”
With respect to Request #1, Hardy does not reveal the specific number of responsive records, rather he simply states that any responsive records are “potential evidence in the FBI investigation, or may provide leads to or context for potential evidence.”  He goes on to state that the premature disclosure of evidence could be reasonably expected to interfere with the pending investigation because it could tip off individuals to the scope of focus of the investigation and allow them to take defensive actions and/or suppress evidence.
In addition to the Hardy Declaration, the FBI also filed a “Classified Declaration” that provides additional details in support of the FOIA exemption which the FBI states they could not provide on the public record without further adversely affecting the ongoing investigation.  The classified declaration will be reviewed by the Court in private and purports to further describe the harm associated with releasing information responsive to Request #1 and Request #4.
The information contained in the FBI’s summary judgment motion and accompanying declarations is important because it indicates that the FBI is still in the process of sorting through and gathering evidence related to the Clinton Server investigation.  The FBI states repeatedly throughout the latest court filings that it is continuing to assess the evidentiary value of “any materials retrieved for the investigation” from the Clinton Server and expresses concern about how the premature disclosure of evidence would adversely impact the pending investigation. Furthermore, the FBI’s response to Request #1 could be interpreted to indicate that the FBI did in fact recover additional materials, including possibly deleted e-mails, from the Clinton Server.
Finally, the fact that the FBI filed a “Classified Declaration” in support of its summary judgment motion tends to indicate that even more classified material exists on the Clinton Server than the over 2,000 classified e-mails we already know about.  In fact, LawNewz asked former federal prosecutor Bill Thomas to clarify the significance of the “Classified Declaration” and he said, not only is the “information being submitted to the court classified, but its really more than that, it is information that if revealed there exists ‘reasonable danger that compulsion of the evidence will expose military matters which, in the interest of national security, should not be divulged.'”
At the end of the day, this all makes Clinton’s defiant refusal to even address Jorge Ramos’ question about a potential indictment at the March 9 Democratic debate look even more like wishful thinking.  Clinton and her supporters may not want to hear it, but this e-mail issue isn’t going away anytime soon.

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