Conservative Blogger
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Gregg Jarrett: Pelosi's crazy claims about Priebus' contact with the FBI don't add up
Nancy Pelosi is nothing, if not insane.
She is, of course, the former Speaker of the House who infamously said of ObamaCare, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”
And who can forget the time she claimed that “500 million people will lose their jobs each month until we have an economic package" ? Which is a pretty neat trick since there are roughly 300 million people living in the U.S.
So, it is understandable that Pelosi’s latest statement was met with the usual eye-rolling. She all but accused the Trump White House of obstructing justice when she described Chief of Staff Reince Priebus’s conversation with a senior FBI official as “a grave abuse of power…which may also be illegal.”
Some background is helpful. Priebus says he was approached by FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who described as inaccurate a New York Times article about repeated contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign. Priebus allegedly asked the FBI to correct the record by disabusing the story with the truth. Since Justice Department guidelines prohibit the FBI from speaking about an ongoing investigation, the agency declined to comment.
(Of course, FBI Director James Comey, seemed to ignore those same guidelines when he chose to disclose details of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, but there is no shortage of hypocrisy in Washington.)
Pelosi, who is prone to batty remarks, promptly denounced Priebus and convicted the president for his “explosive ties… to Russian intelligence agents.” She demanded a full-blown investigation by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General into felonious conduct which she did not bother to identify.
The Democratic leader might consider popping a valium before she hyperventilates.
It is not a crime to solicit the truth. Honesty is not a felony. Obstruction of justice is clearly defined by 18 USC 1503:
“Whoever corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes…the due administration of justice, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).”
A companion section, 18 USC 1505, applies the same terminology to “the proper administration of law” before any department or agency of the U.S., which would include the FBI.
No language in either statute even remotely approaches what Priebus asked McCabe to do. What corrupt act did the chief of staff commit? Maybe eliciting the truth is corrupt only in Pelosi’s world where facts seem immaterial.
Obstruction is typically an effort to alter, destroy or conceal the truth and/or physical evidence. There is no suggestion that Priebus ever attempted to do so. To the contrary, reports indicate his sole desire was to refute a false story. How is that a crime under the law? Decidedly, it is not.
Perhaps Pelosi was inspired by the inflammatory, albeit fallacious, tweets of liberal law professor Laurence Tribe who called for the indictment of Priebus for obstructing justice. The Harvard Law prof compared it to Richard Nixon and “his staff’s efforts to deflect the FBI investigation of the Watergate break-in.”
Seriously? That’s laughable, professor. Soliciting the truth was anathema to Nixon and his “dirty tricksters”. Their sole objective was to hide the truth and demonize anyone who sought to reveal it. It became the legal standard for corrupt political acts.
Reince Priebus may have been naïve to think that the FBI would get involved in rebutting a false narrative. But Nancy Pelosi is the one who is guilty of making a false accusation.
And peddling the kind of canard for which she is well known.
Key Republican would vote against GOP's ObamaCare replacement
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., said Monday that he could not get behind the Republican’s current plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
Walker, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, which has 170 members, told Bloomberg that he would recommend that his fellow members reject the plan, too.
“The bill contains what increasingly appears to be a new health-insurance entitlement with a Republican stamp on it,” he said.
With the GOP-controlled Congress starting its third month of work on one of its marquee priorities, unresolved difficulties include how their substitute would handle Medicaid, whether millions of voters might lose coverage, if their proposed tax credits would be adequate and how to pay for the costly exercise.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office made their job even dicier recently, giving House Republicans an informal analysis that their emerging plan would be more expensive than they hoped and cover fewer people than former President Obama’s statute. The analysis was described by lobbyists speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with congressional aides.
For many in the party, those problems — while major — are outweighed by pledges they’ve made for years to repeal Obama’s 2010 law and substitute it with a GOP alternative. Conservatives favoring full repeal are pitted against more cautious moderates and governors looking to curb Medicaid’s costs also worry about constituents losing coverage. But Republicans also see inaction as the worst alternative and leaders may plunge ahead as soon as next week with initial House committee votes on legislation.
“I believe they have left themselves no choice. Politically they must do something,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican economist and health analyst, said Monday.
President Trump spoke about health care’s complexities on a day he held White House talks with dozens of governors worried Republicans could shift a huge financial burden to the states by curbing Medicaid, the federal-state program that helps low-income people and those in nursing homes pay bills.
Trump also met with insurance company executives concerned that uncertainty about possible GOP changes could roil the marketplace. Insurers said they remain committed to working with the administration and the GOP-led Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Monday that Republicans have yet to win any Democratic support for their effort and said “the odds are very high” Obama’s law won’t be repealed.
Dems already cranking up Trump impeachment talk
Even before Donald Trump had taken the oath of office, some House Democrats, apparently stunned at the election results and bruised by being left entirely out of the Washington power structure, were suggesting impeachment was in order. The movement has only grown stronger more than a month into the Trump presidency.
It is centered around two alleged violations that Trump critics maintain rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors.
"I mean on day one he was in violation of the Emoluments Clause," Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN.) said in a recent CNN town hall.
The Emoluments Clause to which Ellison refers, reads in part, "...no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
Ellison's charge is based on Trump's children now running his businesses. With no blind trust in effect, some believe there is a risk of bribery. "I think a reasonably strong case can be made and a number of constitutional scholars have made that case, says Julian Epstein, former counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment.
Bruce Fein, a Deputy Attorney General during the Reagan Administration, agrees. "If you can prove bribery by circumstantial evidence or something that a foreign government is patronizing the Trump Hotel in exchange for some benefit in trade or military sale, that's bribery. That clearly satisfies the impeachment standards, leaving open the possibility of bribery," he says.
The second potential violation is the charge Trump team's had Russian connections. "This President absolutely was in collusion with the Kremlin and Putin and Russia during the campaign," alleges Rep. Maxine Waters,D-Calif.
Fein believes Waters' argument is weak, noting Trump had not been sworn into office when the alleged violation occurred. "Obviously what he did wasn't corrupting government, he wasn't even president yet exercising presidential powers. It verges on frivolity, in my judgment," he says.
Indeed, Republicans say the charges of a Trump-Putin collusion thus far are based on anonymous leaks and hearsay. "We don’t have any evidence that they talked to Russians," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said during a press briefing on Monday.
But impeachment is more than a legal process, it's a political one, too, something that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted in a panel discussion with radio talk show host Mark Levin at last week's CPAC Convention.
"Do the Democrats understand that they need to control the House of Representatives to impeach somebody?" Levin asked of Cruz.
Cruz replied to uproarious applause, "The Democrats right now are living in an alternative universe."
Epstein believes that may change."The president's support is a mile wide but an inch deep," he says. "If the president's approval numbers, which are in the low 40s right now, dip into the mid- 30s or the low 30s or the high 20s, then you could foresee a situation where Republicans could begin to think that Mike Pence is a much better alternative," he says.
Epstein cautions against impeachment, citing his own experience. "Impeachment is a little like war," he says. "People tend to romanticize the idea of impeaching a president when the opposition party is in the White House. I have lived through an impeachment and it's an incredibly divisive fight that leaves wounds that sometimes takes years and years to heal," he says.
Trump's first budget calling for $54B increase in defense spending faces GOP hurdle
The White House said Monday that President Trump's upcoming budget will propose a whopping $54 billion increase in defense spending and impose corresponding cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid.
The result is that Trump's initial budget wouldn't dent budget deficits projected to run about $500 billion.
White House budget officials outlined the information during a telephone call with reporters given on condition of anonymity. The budget officials on the call ignored requests to put the briefing on the record, even though Trump on Friday decried the use of anonymous sources by the media.
“The president will propose and the Congress will dispose,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., told Politico. “We’ll look at his budget, but at the end of the day we in Congress write the appropriations bills, and I am not one who thinks you can pay for an increase in (military) spending on the backs of domestic discretionary programs, which constitute 13 or 14 percent of all federal spending.”
Trump's defense budget and spending levels for domestic agency operating budgets will be revealed in a partial submission to Congress next month, with proposals on taxes and other programs coming later.
The big, approximately 10 percent increase for the Pentagon would fulfill a Trump campaign promise to build up the military. The senior budget office official said there will be a large reduction in foreign aid and that most domestic agencies will have to absorb cuts. He did not offer details, but the administration is likely to go after longtime Republican targets like the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tentative proposals for the 2018 budget year that begins Oct. 1 are being sent to agencies, which will have a chance to propose changes to the cuts as part of a longstanding tradition at the budget office.
Trump's budget, once finalized and sent to Congress in mid-March, is sure to set off a huge Washington battle. Democrats and some Republicans are certain to resist the cuts to domestic agencies, and any legislation to implement them would have to overcome a filibuster threat by Senate Democrats. A government shutdown is a real possibility.
Trump's budget also won't make significant changes to Social Security or Medicare, according to an administration official.
Capitol Hill aides confirmed details of the upcoming blueprint on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that's not yet been made public.
Trump's first major fiscal marker will land in the agencies one day before his first address to a joint session of Congress. For Trump, the primetime speech is an opportunity to refocus his young presidency on the core economic issues that were a centerpiece of his White House run.
The upcoming submission covers the budget year starting on Oct. 1. But first there's an April 28 deadline to finish up the unfinished spending bills for the ongoing 2017 budget year, which is almost half over, and any stumble or protracted battle could risk a government shutdown then as well.
The March release is also expected to include an immediate infusion of 2017 cash for the Pentagon that's expected to register about $20 billion or so and contain the first wave of funding for Trump's promised border wall and other initiatives like hiring immigration agents.
The president previewed a boost in military spending during a speech Friday to conservative activists, pledging "one of the greatest build-ups in American history."
Monday, February 27, 2017
Spicer checks WH staffers' phones for leaks, vows more searches coming
As the Trump administration hunts for the source of a series of politically embarrassing leaks that have plagued the young administration, dozens of White House staffers have had their phones searched in what is being termed “recess” compared to what may be planned, two top administration officials told Fox News.
One official told Fox that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called nearly two dozen staffers into his office and demanded the staffers’ cell phones in order to check for evidence of leaks. Spicer warned that the initial search would be “recess” compared to what awaits staffers in round two of the investigation, if the leaker – or leakers – aren’t discovered.
A second senior administration official confirmed the first official's account to Fox, adding that staffers were instructed to place their phones on a desk as soon as they walked in.
Spicer also deleted the Confide app from his phone to show that high-ranking officials weren’t immune to rules and regulations, Fox News learned.
Spicer's action was first reported by CNN.
Confide is an encrypted messenger app that does not allow forwarding of a message or for screenshots to be taken of messages. It also deletes a message after it’s been sent. According to CNN, Spicer told the group of aides that using the app for White House communications violates the Federal Records Act.
The entire cellphone search and lecture on communications was done with White House counsel Don McGahn standing by, according to CNN. Politico reported that Spicer consulted McGahn prior to calling the “emergency meeting,” Politico reported.
Staffers had not only their work phones searched, but also whatever other electronics were on them when they entered Spicer’s office, according to Politico.
Ironically, Spicer’s warning about leaking quickly leaked to the press.
President Trump and his top advisers have grown increasingly frustrated as unnamed and anonymous sources continue to populate a deluge of negative press. Politico reported that the mood inside the communications department has grown tense, with a Spicer deputy being driven to tears during a recent meeting. Spicer and the deputy denied the report.
School: No More Music Composed by White Guys
By Todd Starnes
I have some bad news for all of you Burt Bacharach fans.
The Spring Lake Park High School in Minnesota has decided to stop purchasing music composed by white guys -- at least for the time being.
Click here to get a copy of Todd's newest book - The Deplorables' Guide to Making America Great Again!
"We made a commitment this year to only buy music from composers of color," marching band director Brian Lukkasson told National Public Radio.
And the truth is Burt Bacharach is about as white as a jar of Duke's Mayonnaise.
The marching band also pledges to toot their horns to at least one musical selection composed by a lady.
Apparently, some of the teenage musicians were terribly offended and downright disturbed because they were performing music composed by white folks.
"There's a kind of an ideological segregation of who can and cannot be in band, based on who the composers are, and what the music is like," student Kia Muleta told the radio network partially funded by your tax dollars.
"I really, really want other students of color to be able to feel like they are welcomed and appreciated anywhere, that they don't have to check themselves at the door," she added.
I have no idea what that means - but whatever.
"The more you practice talking about race, culture and ethnicity, the more comfortable you are," band director Nora Tycast said.
It sounds to me like racism disguised as diversity.
Mr. Holland's opus it is not.
Judge Jeanine: Officers Supporting Sanctuary Cities Have 'Blood' on Their Hands
The judge said that these officers have a decision to make, and if that decision is tough, "get the hell out of law enforcement," she said.
"I hate to say this; everyone of you in law enforcement who bought into this liberal nonsense also has blood on your hands," Pirro said.
'I'm Worried About Your Leadership': Tucker Battles CT Mayor on Illegal Immigration
Jorge Ramos: Illegal Immigrants Use Fake ID's 'Because They Are Working For Us'
She continued with the heated attack on these officers.
"If this is a tough one for you and you are going to start listening to the ACLU or some liberal mayor who doesn't give a damn about you, your contract or your oath, directing that you release the wanted criminal alien out the side door, then maybe you should rethink this and go into social work," she said.
"You are too damn dumb to be in law enforcement."
GOP Congress back to work with mandate: end ObamaCare, use majority to fulfill promises
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| Rep. Leonard Lance on town hall protests, president's agenda |
Congressional lawmakers begin returning to Washington on Monday after a tense week-long recess in which Republicans got an earful about ObamaCare and other issues and ahead of President Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress.
With the GOP controlling both chambers of Congress and now the White House, Republican lawmakers’ first trip home this session could have been a victory lap. They were instead accused in the media of having done little in roughly their first three weeks. And several were confronted at town hall meetings about plans to replace ObamaCare if and when it’s dismantled.
The president will have his say Tuesday night. Majority Republicans in the House and Senate will be closely watching the prime-time address for guidance, marching orders or any specifics Trump might embrace on health care or taxes, areas where some of his preferences remain a mystery.
Treasure Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday told Fox News that the speech will include Trump’s plan for corporate and individual tax reform. He also suggested that the president is not sold on House Republicans’ so-called “border tax adjustment plan” to tax exports to essentially offset proposed tax cuts.
Trump is expected to deliver his fiscal 2018 budget to Congress in mid-March.
Congressional Republicans insist they are working closely with the new administration as they prepare to start taking votes on health legislation, with the moment finally upon them to make good on seven years of promises to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
House Republicans hope to pass their legislation by early April and send it to the Senate, with action there also possible before Easter.
Republicans will be "keeping our promise to the American people," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said as he sent lawmakers home for the Presidents Day recess armed with informational packets to defend planned GOP changes to the health law.
However, the recess was dominated by raucous town halls in which Republicans -- including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, a favorite of the Tea Party movement -- faced tough questions about their plans to replace the far-reaching law with a new system built around tax credits, health savings accounts and high-risk pools.
Among the important, unanswered questions are what will be the overall cost and how many people will be covered.
There's also uncertainty about how to resolve divisions among states over Medicaid money, with at least a couple of GOP plans circulating, including one by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford.
The lack of clarity created anxiety among voters who peppered the lawmakers from coast to coast with questions about what would become of their own health coverage and that of their friends and family.
It has forced Republicans to offer assurances that they don't intend to take away the law and leave nothing in its place, even though some House conservatives favor doing just that.
"I think we have a responsibility in Washington to try to make the system better,” GOP Rep. Leonard Lance told an overflow crowd last week in his politically divided New Jersey district.
Many Republicans say that how they will handle health legislation will set the stage for the next big battle, over taxes. And the GOP's early plans for major infrastructure bill do not appear on the table.
Senators also will be weighing the nomination of federal appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump's pick for the Supreme Court. Hearings soon will get under way in the Senate Judiciary Committee; floor action is expected before Easter.
Despite Gorsuch's sterling credentials, Democrats are under pressure from their liberal supporters to oppose him, given voters' disdain for Trump and the GOP's refusal last year to allow even a hearing for Obama's nominee for the high court vacancy, federal appeals Judge Merrick Garland.
Yet some Democrats are already predicting that one way or another, Gorsuch will be confirmed. Even if he doesn't pick up the 60 votes he needs, McConnell could use a procedural gambit to eliminate Democrats' ability to filibuster Gorsuch, an outcome that Trump has endorsed.
The Senate has confirmed 14 Cabinet and Cabinet-level officials, fewer than other presidents at this point.
Next up will be financier Wilbur Ross for Commerce secretary, Rep. Ryan Zinke to lead the Interior Department, retired neurosurgeon and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson to be Housing secretary and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the Energy Department.
How Democrats vote will be telling, given the extreme pressures on them to oppose Trump at every turn.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Clooney uses Cesar award to warn about hate in age of Trump
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| Another un-American Hollywood IDIOT. |
Receiving an honorary Cesar on Friday, Clooney said that "citizens of the world" must work "harder and harder not to let hate win."
He said that "the actions of this president have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies and given considerable comfort to our enemies.
"The fault, he said, "is not really his" because fear was already present. "He merely exploited it, and rather successfully."
The critique was delivered with some humor, with French 2012 best actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin providing a purposely wacky translation, and adding his own dig: "Donald Trump is a danger for the world."
Texas bill seeks to label attacks against first responders as a hate crime
The father of a Dallas police officer murdered in the July ambush says he fully supports a sweeping new hate crime bill.
The father of Patrick Zamarripa says he wants his son's murder to have a purpose and hope a Texas bill, designed to protect first responders, does that.
Rick Zamarripa knows nothing he does will bring his son back. But he hopes by pushing new legislation to make attacking police officers a hate crime will give his son's death meaning.
MARYLAND POLICE OFFICER HONORED FOR HEROISM AFTER APARTMENT EXPLOSION
“It needs to stop,” he said.
Rick goes to visit his son’s grave every week.
Patrick was a five-year veteran of the Dallas Police department. He was one of the five officers killed in the July ambush.
“Patrick was there to make sure everybody was going to be safe,” Rick said.
Rick says his son is why he's working to get a new bill passed that would increase penalties for attacking any first responder, including firefighters and EMTs, and make it a hate crime.
OH GIRL FACEBOOK MESSAGES POLICE FOR HELP ON MATH HOMEWORK
“I'm on a mission to help stop all these hate crimes against police officers — anything I can do,” he said. “If I can save a police officer's life or even a civilian's life, I'll have accomplished something. Pass that law. It has to be passed. We need to protect our officers.”
According to law enforcement groups, the number of officers killed in 2016 reached its highest level in five years.
The bill's main backer, Representative Jason Villalba of Dallas, says the bill is to help prevent attacks like the ones on officers in Dallas, San Antonio and Baton Rouge.
“Will it end attacks on police officers? No,” he said. “But will it start the process of beginning that process. Yes, we do believe it will.”
Trump says not going to White House Correspondents dinner
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| Trump tweets that he will not attend correspondents' dinner |
“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year,” Trump tweeted. “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"
The comment was just the latest turn in Trump’s adversarial relationship with the news media, which essentially began at the start of his campaign in July 2015 and took another questionable turn Friday.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer excluded several news organizations from an informal, but on-the-record gathering known as a “gaggle” -- held Friday in place of the regular, daily press briefing.
Among those excluded were the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico.
The Associated Press and purportedly Time magazine chose not to participate upon learning about Spicer’s move.
Those allowed to attend included Fox News and the conservative website Breitbart News. The site's former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is chief strategist to Trump.
The White House defended the decision by saying so-called “pool reporters,” who record events for others, were invited “so everyone was represented.”
Earlier Friday, in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump again railed against “dishonest” members of the media and what he calls “fake news.”
The annual black-tie dinner was already unraveling before Saturday. Some of the most prestigious news gathering groups, including Bloomberg, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, said they would not hold exclusive parties before or afterward. In addition, the casts of Veep, House of Cards and Scandal all said they would not be attending this year.
Even before Trump was elected, the party -- known to some as the “nerd prom” -- was being criticized for becoming an event more for Hollywood types than for the journalists who cover the White House.
Jeff Mason, a Reuters reporter and president of the White House Correspondence Association, told Fox News on Saturday that the dinner has “no chance” of being cancelled and that Trump has yet to be formally invited.
Though U.S. presidents and reporters frequently have adversarial relationships, the event is one each year in which the sides put aside their differences and give speeches that poke fun.
President Obama roasted Trump at the 2011 event.
CPAC straw poll shows conservatives with Trump, think he's 'realigning' movement
http://cpac.conservative.org/
The results of the poll concluded the group’s annual four-day summit outside of Washington, D.C., at which Trump’s speech Friday was the main event.
Trump, whose views do not always align with those of fiscal or social conservatives, received high marks in the poll’s 12 questions. The popular poll did not include a question this year about who was conservatives’ favorite potential presidential candidate, considering Trump won just three months ago.
Perhaps the most applause came when the event organizers announced that 33 percent of respondents said “reforming the tax code” was the biggest Trump campaign promise they wanted him to fulfill.
“Donald Trump is actually doing things the conservative movement wants to get done,” said Matt Schlepp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, the event’s lead organizer.
The audience also cheered upon learning that 91 percent of respondents favored the federal government cutting off federal funds to any so-called “sanctuary” city, county or public college that refuses to cooperate with state and federal officials to enforce immigration laws, according to the poll by McLaughlin & Associates.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Trump administration makes first tangible step to building border wall
President Trump’s administration on Friday made its first tangible step towards developing and implementing one of the president’s chief campaign promises: to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Bloomberg reported that the administration issued a preliminary request for proposals to contractors. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it plans to start awarding contracts by mid-April.
The agency said it will request bids on or around March 6 and that companies would have to submit "concept papers" to design and build prototypes by March 10.
The field of candidates will be narrowed by March 20, and finalists must submit offers with their proposed costs by March 24.
VIDEO: DHS SECRETARY KELLY WANTS A SURGE IN BORDER RESOURCES
The president told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that construction will start "very soon" and is "way, way, way ahead of schedule."
The agency's notice gave no details on where the wall would be built first and how many miles would be covered initially. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has sought employees' opinions during border tours of California, Arizona and Texas.
It is unclear how soon Congress would provide funding and how much.
The Government Accountability Office estimates it would cost on average $6.5 million a mile for a fence to keep out people who try to enter on foot and $1.8 million a mile for vehicle barriers. There are currently 354 miles of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers, much of it built during President George W. Bush's second term.
Republican leaders in Congress have said Trump's wall would cost between $12 billion and $15 billion. Trump has suggested $12 billion.
An internal Homeland Security Department report prepared for Kelly estimates the cost of extending the wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border at about $21 billion, according to a U.S. government official who is involved in border issues. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public.
The Homeland Security report proposes an initial phase that would extend fences 26 miles and a second wave that would add 151 miles, plus 272 "replacement" miles where fences are already installed, according to the official. Those two phases would cost $5 billion.
The price tag will depend largely on the height, materials and other specifications that have not yet been defined.
Granite Construction Inc., Vulcan Materials Co. and Martin Marrieta Materials Inc. are seen as potential bidders. Kiewit Corp. built one of the more expensive stretches of fencing so far at a cost of about $16 million a mile, a project in San Diego that involved filling a deep canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch.
Cement maker Cemex SAB is also seen as a potential beneficiary even though it is based in Mexico.
Robert Davi: Anti-Trump Actors Should Invite Illegal Immigrants to Oscars
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| Liberal Idiots |
Last month, actors including Meryl Streep took the stage at the Golden Globes to slam Trump and his illegal immigration and refugee policies.
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"Just lighten up," Davi, known for his roles in "License to Kill," "Die Hard" and "The Goonies," said on "Your World" today.
"Have them invite all the immigrants, all the refugees ... all the illegal criminals. Open up all the rules of the Academy," he said.
"Open the gates in Bel Air and let the people camp out. Why have any boundaries at all."
Davi added that in response to Streep's and other actors' lamentations of Trump's strict border policy, law enforcement should not be present this year to secure their award show's perimeter.
He said the politically-vocal actors in Hollywood are out of touch with the needs of working class Americans.
Davi also noted that in the 1940s through 1960s, some actors similarly expressed their "progressive, Communist, Marxist agenda" in public.
Jorge Ramos: Illegal Immigrants Use Fake ID's 'Because They Are Working For Us'
Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos told Chris Wallace on Friday that illegal immigrants coming across the Mexican border "are here to help" American citizens.
Hannity to Jorge Ramos: 'You Are Willing to Gamble With the Lives of Americans'
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'You're an Activist!': O'Reilly and Jorge Ramos Clash on Illegal Immigration
"They are coming here to benefit our lives," he said, noting the large amount of undocumented workers in fields such as agriculture.
"The vast majority of undocumented immigrants in this country are not terrorists," he said, responding to repeated contentions by President Trump that many illegal immigrants are criminals.
Ramos said he has no problem with removing violent criminal illegal immigrants, but disagreed with Wallace when asked about those who use fake ID cards or commit identity theft.
"That is not a violent crime," Ramos said on "The O'Reilly Factor," "it is a crime [but] they are coming here to benefit our lives."
"Many of them use fake drivers' licenses, why? Because they are working for us," he said.
Ramos added that the White House's statement that Mexican relations are "phenomenal" was inaccurate, calling the US-Mexico relationship the worst since the United States took part in the Battle of Veracruz in 1914.
'You Demonized Him': O'Reilly Clashes with Jorge Ramos on Coverage of Trump
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Hannity to Univision's Ramos: Would You Support Securing the Border?
Trump rejects DHS intelligence report on travel ban
Officials in President Trump’s administration Friday downplayed an intelligence report by the Homeland Security Department that contradicts the White House’s main arguement for implementing a travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The report, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press, determined that the "country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity."
The Trump administration has taken the position that immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries should be blocked from the U.S. due to their terror risk. Trump used terrorism a primary justification when he announced the now court-blocked travel ban in late January.
The intelligence report found that in the past six years, foreign-born individuals who were “inspired” to strike in the U.S. came from 26 different countries.
VIDEO: DERSHOWITZ ON WHAT HE EXPECTS NEXT FOR TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN
Senior White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News' "First 100 Days" Tuesday that a revised version of the travel ban would "have the same basic policy outcome."
A senior administration official told The Wall Street Journal that the DHS report’s assessment overlooked key information and the finished product that the White House requested has not been completed. The White House called the report politically motivated. Officials said it overlooked some information that supported the ban.
“The president asked for an intelligence assessment,” the official said. “This is not the intelligence assessment the president asked for.”
VIDEO: DEMOCRAT FINDS ELEMENTS TO SUPPORT IN TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN
The draft report determined that few people from the countries Trump listed in his travel ban have carried out attacks or been involved in terrorism-related activities in the U.S. since Syria's civil war started in 2011.
Gillian Christensen, a DHS spokeswoman, does not dispute the report's authenticity, but says it was not a final comprehensive review of the government's intelligence.
“It is clear on its face that it is an incomplete product that fails to find evidence of terrorism by simply refusing to look at all the available evidence,” she said, according to The Journal. “Any suggestion by opponents of the president’s policies that senior (homeland security) intelligence officials would politicize this process or a report’s final conclusions is absurd and not factually accurate. The dispute with this product was over sources and quality, not politics.”
Friday, February 24, 2017
Obama revamp of federal bureaucracy created 'widespread' security policies violations, watchdog says
One of former President Barack Obama’s pet projects -- to drag federal bureaucracy into the digital age -- morphed into a rogue operation that disregarded information security policies, used unauthorized software and information systems on government networks, and exposed sensitive information to potential hackers, according to a watchdog report.
Many of the most egregious security violations took place long after the Obama administration’s 2014 admission of one of the worst cyber-security losses in history: the theft by China-based intruders of 4.2 million personnel files from its Office of Personnel Management -- a revelation that set off a wide-ranging review of all federal cybersecurity.
The report, issued Feb. 21 by the Inspector General’s office of the General Services Administration (GSA), puts the spotlight on a runaway digital services operation known as 18F.
The unit was established in 2014 as part of Obama’s Digital Government Strategy of 2012 -- and apparently made up its own information security rules as it went along, resulting, according to the report, in “widespread violations of fundamental GSA information technology security requirements.” Officials supervising the unit say those problems are now being fixed.
Subsequently, 18F became part of a broader high-tech initiative established the following year and known as the Technology Transformation Service within GSA, which is the services and facilities management pump at the center of the government’s vast and sprawling bureaucracy.
Both 18F and the Technology Transformation Service were supposed to bring the outside-the-box thinking and whiz-kid talent of Silicon Valley to stodgy Washington; both grew out of yet another Obama initiative, the Presidential Innovation Fellows program established in 2012.
Originally focused on website and software development for government agencies, 18F fast grew into an in-house information services contractor for the federal bureaucracy, using GSA funds which were supposed to be repaid through fees to the new unit.
In April 2016, the Technology Transformation Service, with 18F included, was given a broader mandate to “transform the way government builds, buys and shares technology.”
By July, according to an earlier Inspector General’s report, 18F was doing $31 million worth of business with 31 federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.
However much money it made, however, 18F was losing more -- one of the original reasons the Inspector General’s watchdogs got involved.
In an initial report last October, the IG’s staffers warned that the hot-shot start-up had lost more than $31 million from its launch in 2014 through the third quarter of 2016 -- and had always been operating in the red, with revenue projections for its services running tens of millions of dollars ahead of actual revenues.
One major reason was ballooning staff rolls: 18F had grown from a 33-person start-up in April 2014 to more than 200 people by March 2016 -- a more than 500 percent increase.
That October IG report also quoted one 18F official as saying, “to be frank, there are some of us that don’t give a rip about the losses” involved in its growth spurt. GSA’s then-regional administrator for the West Coast, Andrew McMahon, is quoted in the October report as agreeing, “Sure, in the end, I could care less.” (According to his LinkedIn website, McMahon, who describes himself as a “co-founder of 18F,” left GSA in January 2017.)
CLICK HERE FOR THE OCTOBER REPORT
How 18F was running its fast-growing, money-losing business is a big part of the problem. According to the most recent IG report, one method was to ignore virtually all GSA information security safeguards for the wares it was encouraging agencies to buy. Those safeguards involve planning and testing unauthorized systems, then submitting a system security plan for review, and getting a signed authorization to operate that must be periodically reviewed.
According to the Inspector General’s office, 18F just ignored all that, and “disregarded GSA IT [information technology] security policies for operating and obtaining information technology, and for using non-official email.”
The unit “also created and used its own set of guidelines for assessing and authorizing information systems that circumvented GSA IT” -- and short-circuited the information security of the GSA network.
In all, the watchdogs found, 100 of 116 software items on 18F’s inventory of software were unauthorized, ranging from collaborative note-taking and data-sharing tools, to website monitoring tools and social media marketing dashboards. All were banned from GSA use by June 2016.
By that time, the watchdogs had already found out from 18F itself that unauthorized use of, among other things, another online messaging and collaboration app, Slack, had “potentially exposed sensitive information” over a five-month period ending in May. The breach involved “over 100 GSA Google Drives…reportedly accessible by users both inside and outside of GSA,” the watchdogs noted in an alert to GSA management.
The breach potential exposed such things as “personally identifiable information and contractor proprietary information,” the inspectors said. They issued a May 12 brief -- 2016 Management Alert Report -- as a warning flare about the data breach, with “recommendations” that GSA stop that practice.
CLICK HERE FOR THE MANAGEMENT ALERT REPORT
Even so, the alert noted, the 18F users waited five days to report the situation, which itself was another breach of info-security policy -- which says that one hour is the top limit for delay.
Compounding the issue, the report says that 18F’s executive director and its director of infrastructure co-authored a blog post saying that they had done a “full investigation” of the breach issue, and declared that “to the best of our knowledge no sensitive information was shared inappropriately.”
By August, the Inspector General’s investigators had found otherwise.
But, as the inspectors noted, “as of February 2, 2017, [presumably, the date when their report was finalized internally], the 18F blog post had not been updated” to reflect any of that.
A GSA spokesperson did not answer an email question from Fox News about whether the blog post had been removed or recanted. Instead, the spokesman declared that “GSA considers IT security a top priority and takes the GSA Inspector General’s report seriously.
The spokesman added that the agency “notes that there were gaps in compliance with our CIO [Chief Information Officer] security requirements” but wanted to emphasize “that the issues raised” in the most recent report “were promptly addressed.”
It appears 18F was long used to working without much reference to GSA’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who was, among other things, supposed to sign off on all information systems’ adherence to federal security policies.
According to the most recent report, no fewer than 18 information systems operated by 18F for more than a year ending in July 2016 lacked proper CISO authorizations for their use, and eleven of them had never been authorized. One system 18F was operating without required sign-off was “a recruitment and applicant tracking information system containing applicants’ resumes and contact information.”
Rather than get security clearances from the CISO, 18F apparently had a better idea: make up its own information security assessment and authorization system.
In February 2015, the latest report says, 18F’s then-Deputy Executive Director Aaron Snow -- who became executive director in May of that year -- proposed a new set of procedures titled, “Guidelines for Granting Authority to Operate 18F-Hosted Open Data Systems.” If approved, they would have allowed the unit to authorize the use of essentially public information systems without full security vetting.
The guidelines were not approved by GSA’s information security brass. But in February 2015 18F began using them anyway, the report says.
How that came to be is apparently still something of a mystery.
According to the report, 18F’s director of infrastructure told the watchdogs that “he received approval of the guidelines from Phaedra Chrousos, who at the time had oversight of 18F in her position as head of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT).”
(OCSIT and 18F were both subsequently rolled into the new Technology Transfer Service, which Chrousos also headed, until she stepped down in July 2016.)
According to the report, “Chrousos told us that she remembered the director’s request for her signed approval of the guidelines shortly after she became head of OCSIT in early 2015. She said she did not recall signing them, but probably would have done so.”
When the Inspector General’s staffers asked the Technology Transfer Service to search “for any record of the guidelines,” the officials “told us that they could not verify the existence of the signed document.”
Using its own rules apparently still did not make things happen fast enough for 18F, so, according to the watchdog report, it also implemented a “pre-authorization” policy that allowed information systems it decided were “low-risk” to operate without any security assessment or subsequent OK.
To make things happen even quicker than that, 18F’s director of infrastructure appointed himself as the 18F Information Systems Security Officer -- the person responsible for implementing the GSA rules that 18F was apparently already ignoring. The appointment was never revealed to the overall agency’s CISO, who is responsible for appointing such officials.
Review of its business contracts was something else that 18F apparently felt was dispensable. According to the latest watchdog report, the renegade unit “entered into contracts and other agreements” for information technology purchases worth $24.8 million, and never got approval from GSA’s Chief Information Officer, as required under a formal Memorandum of Agreement with the unit.
How did it all happen? Many of 18F’s top brass and external supervisors claimed not to know.
According to the report, GSA regional administrator McMahon, who was also a GSA “Senior Technology Adviser,” told the watchdogs that “18F was not permitted any flexibility regarding compliance with GSA information technology policies.”
When the Inspector General’s investigators asked 18F Executive Director Snow why there was a “breakdown” in 18F’s info-tech security policy compliance, his reply was, “I honestly don’t know.”
Former OCSIT head Chrousos told the Inspector General’s staffers that “18F was not sufficiently integrated into the GSA IT environment,” but when asked how, as 18F’s overseer, she had allowed the unit to operate without higher information security clearance, she “said that she is not an IT engineer and therefore left technical matters to the director of infrastructure.”
The Inspector General’s staffers put much of the blame for the 18F debacle down to “management failures,” and they specifically pointed the finger at Chrousos and Snow in particular for failing “to provide adequate oversight and guidance to subordinates.”
“Ultimately,” their report says, “Chrousos’ and Snow’s indifference to GSA IT policies contributed to the compliance breakdown.”
Both Chrousos and Snow declined to respond to emailed Fox News questions about the report; in Snow’s case, he said, due to urgent family matters. He had already told the Washington Post, however, that “this report is not about security. It’s about compliance. And that’s why government falls so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology.”
The Inspector General’s report also blamed GSA’s current Chief Information Officer, David Shrive -- who told them he was “not in a position” to see what 18F was doing before the May 2016 Management Alert Report -- for “failing to fulfill” his responsibilities for the agency’s information technology security program.
CLICK HERE FOR THE MAY REPORT
Shive had not answered emailed questions from Fox News about the report by the time this story was published.
Both Chrousos and Snow have left their roles. Chrousos announced her departure as head of the Technology Transformation Service in June 2016, after just two months on the job, while Snow left 18F four months later.
The new head of the Technology Transformation Service, Rob Cook, told Fox News that the he had already made substantial changes in the way his organization was operating.
In the past, he said, “there was less care taken about complying with the rules than in getting the work done. If we are going to transform government, we have to play by the rules while changing the rules.”
The organization that was supposed to bring dramatic change to the federal world of high-tech is now treating its role as “more of a partnership” -- especially with the bureaucracy’s own legal and technology staff.
Among other things, Cook said, that means painstakingly seeking security OKs for all the high-tech tools it uses -- and not using them until the approvals are granted.
Democrats reportedly plan total war on Trump
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| Kucinich reacts to Democrats' early Trump impeachment talk |
The New York Times reported Thursday that there was a time when Democrats were divided on their Trump approach. Trump did win former blue states in his November victory and Democrats in those states witnessed a new vulnerability.
The report, however, said that protests and angry emails have prompted Democrats to "cast aside any notion of conciliation with the White House.”
“My belief is, we have to resist every way and everywhere, every time we can,” Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington told the paper. Inslee said there was a “tornado of support” for a wall-to-wall resistance.
TRUMP GETS READY TO TAKE CENTER STAGE AT CPAC
Douglas E. Schoen, a former pollster for President Clinton and Fox News contributor, wrote in an opinion piece that “Trump's ascendance is rooted in America’s preference for center-right policy."
"As the Democratic Party shifted ever leftwards under Obama, it suffered net losses of 11 Senate seats, 62 House seats, and 10 governorships since 2010, as well as nearly 1000 state legislative seats.”
He went on to say, “The groups driving the Democratic Party to the left believe their only path to victory is mobilization. These forces are pushing the party away from the American public, which fundamentally is center-right, and channeling the concerns and priorities of the core Democratic coastal base.”
Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., is considered a “middle-of-the-road.” He told The Times that loathing Trump is not a governing strategy.
“There is this vitriol and dislike for our new president,” he said. “The challenge for us is to harness it in a productive way and a constructive way, and I think we will.”
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