Conservative Blogger
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Reid accuses GOP senator of 'praying' for Obama's death
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| At left, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid; at right, Sen. David Perdue. |
The allegations followed Georgia Sen. David Perdue’s remarks Friday to a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington.
“We are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and yes, even our president,” Perdue said. “I think we should pray for Barack Obama.”
He added, “We need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says, 'Let his days be few, and let another have his office.'”
Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman let Perdue have it, claiming he had just issued a call to prayer for Obama’s demise – as opposed to the end of his term.
“If Republicans are still wondering why Donald Trump is their nominee, look no further than today’s Faith and Freedom conference where a sitting Republican Senator left the impression he was praying for the death of President Obama and then the Republican Leader followed him on stage and did not condemn him,” she said in a statement.
Perdue’s office rejected the allegation.
Megan Whittmore said in a statement: "Senator Perdue said we are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and for our president. He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that. However, we should add the media to our prayer list because they are pushing a narrative to create controversy and that is exactly what the American people are tired of."
Perdue was speaking at the same Washington conference that Donald Trump addressed Friday afternoon.
In the remarks, he made clear he was joking. “In all seriousness, I believe that America is at a moment of crisis,” he added.
He did not recite the next lines of Psalm 109, which are: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
Asked later at Friday's briefing whether the senator should apologize, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: “As Senator Perdue considers whether or not an apology is appropriate, there are a variety of other Scripture he might consult.”
School rejects teen's gun-toting, flag-waving photo
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| Joshua Bruner (Courtesy of Joshua Bruner) |
The 15-year-old country boy from Ringoes, New Jersey is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. He’s a member of two state shooting teams and he serves as a United States Sea Cadet.
Darcy Meys said her son wants to follow in his great-grandfather’s footsteps and enlist in the Marines.
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“Josh considers himself to be a patriot,” she told me. “He loves his country.”
A few weeks ago Josh was given an assignment in a photography class at Hunterdon Central Regional High School. He had to take a self-portrait representing self-expression.
So Josh and some of his buddies gathered in a field behind his house and set up a tripod – striking their best male model poses.
Josh climbed atop a four-wheeler. He was holding Old Glory in one hand and a shotgun in the other – a Remington pump action 12-gauge to be precise.
It was, by all accounts, an epic picture that summed up the heart and soul of this teenage patriot.
Now, at Hunterdon Regional kids have to upload their assignments to the school’s Google site. And that’s when Josh learned there was a problem.
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His self-portrait was rejected because it violated the school’s gun policy.
“The rules of our school prohibit students from using artwork depicting themselves or another person with any weapon,” the teacher wrote to Mrs. Meys.
Mrs. Meys told me she looked at the school policy and she believes it was referring to actual guns on school property – not a photograph of a gun taken on private property.
“Josh was just showing pride for his country and who he is as a shooter and as a kid who wants to be in the Marines and protect his country and follow in his grandfather’s footsteps,” she told me. “He was not dressed inappropriately. He was not holding the gun incorrectly and He was respecting the flag.”
The school decided to offer Josh a compromise, according to email correspondence between his mother and the teacher.
But it’s really not much of a compromise.
The school agreed to grade Josh’s photograph – but they were adamant that it could not be uploaded onto the school’s server nor could it be publicly displayed.
“He will not be able to upload the image to our server, post them to his Google site or display them in his presentation,” the teacher wrote. “We would like to recognize his work on the portrait but limit the possibility that the photo can be taken out of context.”
Good Lord! It’s not pornography, people. It’s a kid holding Old Glory and a shotgun.
“They are crushing his spirit,” Mrs. Meys told me. “They are stifling his creativity.”
And for that matter – they are in effect telling this child that he cannot take pride in who he is – his identity as an American.
“If it is okay for people to show pride in their sexuality, why can’t my son show pride in his country,” she asked.
I know the answer to that question. These days Gay Pride is in vogue and American Pride is passe.
“I’m supposed to accept guys going into bathrooms with my daughters and girls going into bathrooms with my boys but they won’t accept my kid for just wanting to be a patriot,” she said.
In this age of tolerance and diversity it’s too bad our public school system can’t be more tolerant of red-blooded American patriots like Josh Bruner.
Board of Education: Hunterdon Central RegionalHigh School
Deborah Labbadia, PresidentReadington Township
dlabbadia@hcrhs.org
Kathy Raborn, Vice President
Raritan Township
kraborn@hcrhs.org
Lori Blutfield
Readington Township
lblutfield@hcrhs.org
John Cannizzaro
Raritan Township
jcannizzaro1@hcrhs.org
James Davidson
East Amwell Township
jdavidson@hcrhs.org
Patrick Dugan
Raritan Township
pdugan@hcrhs.org
Robert McNally
Flemington Borough
robert.mcnally@hcrhs.org
Karen Palestini Falk
Delaware Township
kfalk@hcrhs.org
Vincent Panico
Readington Township
vincent.panico@hcrhs.org
Jury finds Alabama House Speaker guilty on 12 ethics charges
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| Mike , center, and Susan Hubbard walk to the Lee County Justice Center for closing arguments in the Alabama House Speaker's Trial on Friday, June 10, 2016, in Opelika, Ala. |
The panel acquitted Hubbard on the remaining of the 23 charges he was facing. He talked briefly with his attorneys before a deputy escorted him out of the courtroom.
The verdict came after weeks of mostly reluctant testimony from Hubbard's inner circle and a roster of the state's business and political elite, including Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and former Gov. Bob Riley. Hubbard, 54, has described Riley as a father figure and political mentor, and named his younger son after him.
Prosecutors accused Hubbard of using his political offices, as speaker and as former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, to try to obtain $2.3 million in work and investments. The charges included that he directed GOP campaign work to his printing company; solicited investments and help to find employment from lobbyists and company executives; and used the power of his office to benefit his clients through legislative action or lobbying the governor's office. Hubbard argued the transactions were legal and within the bounds of the state ethics law and its exemptions for normal business dealings and friendships. His defense noted that the transactions involved people who were long-time friends.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers gave jurors dueling portraits of Hubbard, a man who helped guide Republican's rise to prominence in Alabama.
Defense lawyer Bill Baxley told jurors that Hubbard took care not to run afoul of state ethics law and asked advice from the then-director of the Alabama Ethics Commission.
Prosecutor Matt Hart depicted Hubbard as a conniving politician who seized at opportunities to make money through his political party work and elected office.
The trial accused Hubbard of violating a state ethics law he once championed after leading Republicans' rise to legislative power.
Hubbard was the general of Republicans' 2010 offensive to win control of the Alabama Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. After the victory, Hubbard was elected speaker and the new GOP-controlled legislature approved revisions to the state's ethics law in a special session called by Riley.
Hubbard took the witness stand in his own defense at the trial.
Hubbard faces up to 20 years in prison for each ethics count. Sentencing is set for July 28.
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| Did the KGB breach Hillary Clinton's server? |
But a 2012 email released by the State Department appears to challenge that claim because it carries a classified code known as a “portion marking” - and that marking was on the email when it was sent directly to Clinton’s account.
The “C” - which means it was marked classified at the confidential level - is in the left-hand-margin and relates to an April 2012 phone call with Malawi's first female president, Joyce Banda, who took power after the death of President Mutharika in 2012.
"(C) Purpose of Call: to offer condolences on the passing of President Mukharika and congratulate President Banda on her recent swearing in."
Everything after that was fully redacted before it was publicly released by the State Department -- a sign that the information was classified at the time and dealt with sensitive government deliberations.
A US government source said there are other Clinton emails with classified markings, or marked classified, beyond the April 2012 document.
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"This system requires that standard markings be applied to classified information...Markings shall be uniformly and conspicuously applied to leave no doubt about the classified status of the information, the level of protection required, and the duration of classification."
It adds, "A portion is ordinarily defined as a paragraph, but also includes subjects, titles, graphics, tables, charts, bullet statements, sub-paragraphs, classified signature blocks, bullets and other portions within slide presentations, and the like."
"Portion markings consist of the letters “(U)” for Unclassified, “(C)” for Confidential, “(S)” for Secret, and “(TS)” for Top Secret."
Congressman Mike Pompeo, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, has read the 22 Top Secret emails too damaging to national security to release, and routinely reviews classified documents.
While he could not speak directly to the April 2012 email, he said, "I've seen information like that often. Often certain parts of a particular message will be unclassified and other parts will be classified and they are almost always marked paragraph by paragraph."
Pompeo added, “If, in fact, it is truly marked confidential that would.. and she read it, that made it to her, that would conflict with what she had previously said."
On Wednesday, Clinton told Bret Baier on Special Report, “the fact is, nothing that I sent or received was marked classified, and nothing has been demonstrated to contradict that. “
Meantime, Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal, who spoke to Fox News as part of a book tour to promote his new biolgraphy, "A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849,"said that the Romanian hacker known as Guccifer -- who claimed to breach Clinton's personal server - may have worked for foreign intelligence.
"Marcel Lazar is a Romanian. He worked from a Russian server. He may well be part of a Russian information operation," Blumenthal explained.
While he said there's no way Lazar compromised Clinton's emails, the hacker told Fox News in a telephone interview before reaching a plea deal with the Justice Department that it was "easy for me, for everybody” to access the Clinton server.
Given more than 2,100 classified emails were on the server, Fox asked Blumenthal if he had a security clearance to handle such material. "I was her friend, and I had no security clearance, nor did I seek it, nor did anyone ever send me anything that was classified. So I had no access to, nor did I send or receive any classified material."
Blumenthal said he expects FBI Director James Comey to publicly confirm that Clinton and her aides did not deliberately compromise the nation's secrets.
"This is the question that is at the center of the Department of Justice FBI investigation: Whether anybody had intent, criminal intent to put classified information outside of the system. I believe that was not the case, and I think then, that we will see a statement coming from the FBI stating that, saying that... I assume that the FBI has an interest in - James Comey, the FBI Director has an interest in acting promptly to resolve this remaining question. But I feel confident about the resolution, " Blumenthal said.
Asked about the April 2012 email, and how the campaign could reconcile the classified marking with Clinton’s public statements, spokesman Brian Fallon did not directly address the issue. "This email was just a request for Secretary Clinton to make a phone call to express condolences over the passing of the President of Malawi. The fact that this email was classified after the fact suggests again that agencies in the government tend to err on the side of classifying even routine matters of diplomacy."
Trump, Clinton clash in dueling DC speeches
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, now at the starting line of a general election race, traded shots across the capital Friday in dueling addresses before two very different D.C. audiences -- each warning the other would take the country backward.
Trump headlined the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” summit while Clinton addressed a Planned Parenthood national conference.
Trump, looking to solidify his standing with evangelical Christians, offered assurances Friday that he would “restore respect for people of faith” -- and stressed the “sanctity and dignity of life.”
If there was any doubt he wanted to throw Clinton's Planned Parenthood speech into sharp relief, he took on his presumptive rival later in his remarks. Trump warned Clinton would "appoint radical judges," eliminate the Second Amendment, "restrict religious freedom with government mandates," and "push for federal funding of abortion on demand up until the moment of birth."
He also cast her support for bringing in Syrian refugees as a potential clash of faiths. "Hillary will bring hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of whom have hostile beliefs about people of different faiths and values," he said.
Clinton, meanwhile, in her first speech as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, said a Trump presidency would take the country back to a time “when abortion was illegal … and life for too many women and girls was limited.”
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Clinton made it clear that women’s issues would be a staple of her campaign, promising abortion rights supporters that she would “always have your back” if elected president.
Clinton repeated claims that Trump wants to “take America back to a time when women had less opportunity” and freedom.
“Well, Donald, those days are over. We are not going to let Donald Trump -- or anybody else -- turn back the clock,” she told the cheering crowd.
Before arriving at the event, Clinton held a private meeting at her D.C. home with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has been rumored to be a consideration for running mate.
Echoing some of the attacks Warren has made in recent days, Clinton attempted to elevate the importance of this election.
“We are in the middle of a concerted, persistent assault on women’s health across the country,” warned Clinton, who said the 2016 election was “profoundly different” than previous elections.
In what is a campaign trail staple of hers, Clinton highlighted Trump’s insults toward women and asserted that it would be “hard to imagine depending on him to defend the fundamental rights of women.”
Trump, meanwhile, continued calling Clinton, “crooked Hillary” and referred to her ongoing email scandal. He took her to task on her domestic and foreign policy stances.
Trump was interrupted by protesters at the annual gathering of evangelical Christians. The protesters shouted “Stop hate! Stop Trump!” and “refugees are welcome here.”
Trump called the chants “a little freedom of speech” but added it was also “a little rude, but what can you do?”
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