Donald Trump insults Fiorina's appearance in magazine profile

Donald Trump is under fire yet again after insulting the physical appearance of fellow GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
"Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president," the Republican frontrunner said in the interview. "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?"
Trump has been criticized for his insults against women. During last month's Fox News' GOP debate he was asked about calling some women "fat pigs" and "disgusting animals," and said he couldn't remember using such words.
Fiorina told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” Wednesday that Trump’s comments “speak for themselves” and are “very serious.”
“Maybe just maybe I’m getting under his skin a little bit because I’m climbing in the polls,” she said.
Fiorina has been rising in the polls since her strong performance in the Aug. 6 debate for second-tier GOP candidates sponsored by Fox News and Facebook.
The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive has fought to be included in the main event for CNN’s Republican presidential debate to be held Sept. 16th.
The deadline to qualify for the networks national televised, main-stage debate is Sept. 10.

Dispute among House GOP jeopardizes vote on Iran nuclear deal

Conservative House Republicans forced an abrupt about-face from party leaders Wednesday as a rule to debate a resolution disapproving the Iran nuclear deal was scrapped in favor of an approach involving votes on three related measures.
The first measure specifies that the Obama administration had not properly submitted the accord to Congress. The second is a bound-to-fail vote to approve the deal, and a third would prevent Obama from lifting congressionally mandated sanctions on Iran. Debate and votes were to begin Thursday.
"We need to pull every tool out of the toolbox to stop this bad deal," said Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas.
The rebels were egged on by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has repeatedly allied himself with House conservatives to thwart the plans of GOP leaders. He and others argued that the disapproval vote should be delayed, contending the 60-day deadline clock on the congressional review period can't really start until lawmakers get information on separate agreements negotiated with Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"I don't believe the [60-day] clock has started," said Rep. Pete Roskam, R-Ill. "Either stop the clock or disclose the documents."
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, one of the conservative rebels, told reporters that he believed there were two so-called "side agreements" that had not been disclosed to Congress.

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"I believe those documents exist," Pompeo said.
However, that claim is contrary to how the House GOP leadership, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif, acted over the summer. After the final agreement was sealed in July, GOP leaders started a 60-day clock, which mandated that Congress consider and vote on the deal by September 17 under legislation passed earlier this year.
Republican leaders did not sound receptive to conservative attempts to change the terms of the debate.
"Right now we've got strong bipartisan opposition to this deal. It's my opinion that we're far better off focusing on the substance" rather than the timing of a vote, said Sen. Bob Corker, R- Tenn., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
The White House and Democratic lawmakers were dismissive of the conservative moves. "Sounds like a plan hatched up at Tortilla Coast on a Tuesday night," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, naming a restaurant near the Capitol where congressional conservatives meet.
 In response to Schultz, Pompeo retorted, "I haven't been to Tortilla Coast in months."
The maneuvering appeared to be moving forward without the blessing of the powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, which has led opposition to the accord. An official with the group said its preference was for a straight vote on the disapproval resolution — something Senate Democrats are trying to block with a filibuster.
The fate of that effort remained uncertain. In the Senate debate did begin on the resolution Wednesday, with some describing the vote, which could occur yet this week, as among the most consequential in their lifetimes. Underscoring the occasion, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged all senators to be present, though most Democrats and some Republicans ignored the request.
The international accord aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions will likely move ahead barring truly dramatic turnabouts. Even if Congress succeeds in passing legislation aimed at undermining it by next week's deadline, President Obama would veto such a measure and minority Democrats command enough votes to sustain the veto.

Amid ‘disaster of Biblical proportions,’ administration reportedly to accept 5,000 more refugees

WASHINGTON –  In response to international calls to help ease the burden of the Syrian refugee crisis, the Obama administration reportedly is prepared to increase the number of refugees the U.S. resettles -- by roughly 5,000.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that, according to unnamed sources, Secretary of State John Kerry told members of Congress in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that the United States will boost its worldwide quota for resettling refugees from 70,000 to 75,000 next year, a number that could increase further. A fraction of those would be from Syria.
A 5,000-person increase would be far short of what aid groups and others have called for – the International Rescue Committee and other groups have urged the U.S. to resettle 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016.
The administration, though, has struggled to respond to the growing crisis -- and strike a balance between calls to accept more refugees and warnings that bringing in thousands from Islamic State-controlled territory would pose a grave security risk.
Kerry, without putting a number on it, said Wednesday that the U.S. would allow more refugees into the country.
"We are looking hard at the number that we can specifically manage with respect to the crisis in Syria and Europe," he said. "That's being vetted fully right now."
Europeans countries already are facing the prospect of hundreds of thousands of refugees, many from Syria, seeking entry. Australia announced Wednesday that their country would permanently resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees.
Without spelling out their own proposals, Obama administration officials have acknowledged the extent of the humanitarian crisis.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday that the current refugee crisis is a "disaster of Biblical proportions." At the same time, Clapper said he worries about the background of some of those fleeing Iraq and Syria.
"Exactly what's their background?" Clapper said during an industry conference. "We don't obviously put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees."
Clapper went on to say the U.S. has a program in place to screen those coming into the country but he is not as confident that some European nations possess that same capability.
The White House is facing pressure from all sides to do more to address the crisis.
Shortly after Kerry's meeting, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona went to the Senate floor to urge stronger leadership from Obama on stemming violence in the Middle East and North Africa. He stood next to an enlarged, close-up photo of the dead body of three-year old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy who drowned along with his 5-year-old brother and mother when their small rubber boat capsized as it headed for Greece.
"This image has haunted the world," McCain said. "But what should haunt us even more than the horror unfolding before our eyes is the thought that the United States will continue to do nothing meaningful about it."
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the Obama administration has been looking at a "range of approaches" for assisting U.S. allies with 340,000 people freshly arrived from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, Kerry's predecessor, called for an "emergency global gathering" at the United Nations General Assembly meeting later this month, where countries could pledge aid money and to accept some of the refugees.
The top three groups of people resettled by the U.S. are Burmese, Iraqis and Somalis.
While Germany braces for some 800,000 asylum seekers this year, the U.S. hadn't previously said if it would increase its worldwide quota. Throughout Syria's 4 1/2-year civil war, the U.S. has accepted only about 1,500 Syrians -- a tiny percentage of the 11.6 million people who have been chased out of the country or uprooted from their homes.
Asked directly if the Obama administration felt responsible to share Europe's refugee burden, Earnest stressed U.S. support thus far: $4 billion in humanitarian aid, more than any other country has provided, and ongoing diplomatic work to resolve Syria's conflict peacefully.
The diplomacy appears nowhere near ending violence that started in 2011 with a government crackdown on political opponents, spawning an armed insurgency and eventually leading to Islamic State extremists seizing much of the country.

Dozens of intelligence analysts reportedly claim assessments of ISIS were altered

Dozens of intelligence analysts working at the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) have complained that their reports on ISIS and the Nusra Front in Syria were inappropriately altered by senior officials, according to a published report.
The Daily Beast reported late Wednesday that more than 50 analysts had supported a complaint to the Pentagon that the reports had been changed to make the terror groups seem weaker than the analysts believe they really are. Fox News confirmed last month that the Defense Department's inspector general was investigating the initial complaint, which the New York Times reported was made by a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
The assessments in question are prepared for several U.S. policymakers, including President Obama.
The Daily Beast report, which cited 11 individuals, claimed that the complaint being investigated by the Defense Department was made in July. However, several analysts reportedly complained as early as this past October that their reports were being altered to suit a political narrative that ISIS was being weakened by U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.
"The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command," the report quotes one defense official as saying.
According to the report, some analysts allege that reports deemed overly negative in their assessment of the Syria campaign were either blocked from reaching policymakers or sent back down the chain of command. Others claim that key elements of intelligence reports were removed, fundamentally altering their conclusions. Another claim is that senior leaders at CENTCOM created a work environment where giving a candid opinion on the progress of the anti-ISIS campaign was discouraged, with one analyst describing the tenor as "Stalinist."

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The report alleges that when the analysts' complaints were initially aired, some of those who complained were urged to retire, and did so. Facing either resistance or indifference, other analysts self-censored their reports, the Daily Beast claims.
The defense official quoted by the Daily Beast said that some who spoke up did so out of guilt that they did not express doubts about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's alleged chemical weapons program in the run-up to the Iraq. War.
"They were frustrated because they didn’t do the right thing then," the official said.
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have been advised of the complaint that prompted the inspector general's investigation, which is required if Pentagon officials find the claims credible.
Government rules state that intelligence assessments "must not be distorted" by agendas or policy views, but do allow for legitimate differences of opinion.
Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick S. Ryder said in a statement Wednesday that they welcome the IG's "independent oversight."
"While we cannot comment on ongoing investigations, we can speak to the process and about the valued contributions of the Intelligence Community (IC)," he said, adding that intelligence community members typically are able to comment on draft security assessments. "However," he said, "it is ultimately up to the primary agency or organization whether or not they incorporate any recommended changes or additions. Further, the multi-source nature of our assessment process purposely guards against any single report or opinion unduly influencing leaders and decision-makers."
Earlier this summer, on the eve of the anniversary of the launching of airstrikes against Iraq, the Associated Press reported that U.S intelligence had concluded that the airstrikes had helped stall ISIS after sweeping gains in the summer of 2014. However, the report also said the terror group remained a well-funded army that could easily replenish its numbers as quickly as fighters were eliminated.

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Hillary Clinton offers first apology for private email server

Hillary Clinton offered her first apology for using a private email server while secretary of state, calling it a “mistake” in an interview that aired Tuesday.
“Even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails,” she told ABC News. ”That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.”
The comments came just a day after Clinton told the Associated Press she did not need to apologize for her actions because “what I did was allowed.”
At the State Department's request, Clinton has turned over 55,000 pages of work-related emails last year, while the FBI has also taken possession of the server after Clinton resisted giving up until last month.
When asked by ABC News if she could survive the ongoing FBI investigation, Clinton cited her lengthy existence on the political stage.
“As you might guess I’ve been around a while, lots of attacks, questions raised. I can survive it because I’m running to be president, to do what the country needs done,” Clinton told ABC. “I believe the American people will respond to that.”
But just as the interview aired, Clinton’s apology already came under fire.
“The only thing Hillary Clinton regrets is that she got caught and is dropping in the polls, not the fact her secret email server left classified information exposed to the Russians and Chinese,” RNC National Press Secretary Allison Moore said in a statement. “Hillary Clinton’s reckless attempt to skirt government transparency laws put our national security at risk and shows she cannot be trusted in the White House.”
Clinton became emotional after she was asked about her mother’s influence on her campaign.
“She told me every day, you got to get up and fight for what you believe in no matter how hard it is,” Clinton said. “And I don’t want to just fight for me. I mean I can have a perfectly fine life not being a president. I want to fight for all the people like my mother who cares who needs somebody in their corner.”
The former secretary of state restated her apology in a note to supporters on her Facebook page late Tuesday, but also called her use of a personal e-mail account  "aboveboard and allowed under the State Department's rules.
"Everyone I communicated with in government was aware of it," Clinton added. Later in the note, she said, "I know this is a complex story. I could have—and should have—done a better job answering questions earlier."
Clinton’s latest efforts to explain the private email server controversy has continued to sometimes overshadow her presidential campaign, with multiple polls showing a majority of Americans don’t find her honest and trustworthy.
In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 61 percent of voters said they did not consider Clinton honest and trustworthy compared to 34 percent who did ascribe those qualities to her.
Clinton also has her status as the Democratic front-runner on the line, as the latest NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday showed Sen. Bernie Sanders with a 9-point lead over her in New Hampshire.
The polls also showed Sanders, a Vermont Independent, gaining ground on Clinton in Iowa.
The states -- Iowa and New Hampshire -- are the first and second, respectively, to hold 2016 primary vote, where the outcomes of those ballots often determine the future of the presidential campaigns.

Ben Carson calls for guest-worker status for immigrants

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson jabbed Tuesday at front-runner Donald Trump's proposal to deport everyone who is in the country illegally, calling the plan impractical.

"People who say that have no idea what that would entail" legally and otherwise, Carson said, adding: "Where you going to send them?"

The retired neurosurgeon spoke before The Commonwealth Club of California on Tuesday in a 75-minute event in which he took questions from the audience on topics ranging from abortion to immigration, taxation to race relations.

Carson's longshot candidacy is buoyed by humor and a self-deprecating demeanor that some would-be voters say they find refreshing. Trump, the brash front-runner in the GOP nomination fight, has made immigration a centerpiece of his candidacy. Trump says he would deport those living in the country illegally — estimated at 11 million people.

Carson said he would secure the border, but also grant guest-worker status to people who are in the country without documentation. That way, they can pay taxes and come out from the shadows, he said.
Mass deportation, he said, would be expensive and impractical, and crippling to the hotel and agriculture industries.

San Francisco venture capitalist Scott Russell, an unaffiliated voter, called Carson charismatic, yet positive.

"He wasn't trying to attack other candidates or trying to say negative things," Russell said. "I like people who describe their policies, but don't spend their minutes trying to attack others."

Carson is scheduled to attend a rally in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday.

White House considering ‘resettlement,’ other options for refugee crisis

The White House has to be Kidding us, right? We can't control our own borders as it is!

The Obama administration is "actively considering" options for addressing the global refugee crisis, including the possibility of "refugee resettlement," the White House said Tuesday. 
Without going into specifics, White House officials said the State Department is leading a "reconsideration" of how best to deal with the flood of refugees into Europe and elsewhere.
"There is no denying that the situation that many of our European partners are confronting right now is a significant one," Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. National Security Council spokesman Peter Boogaard also said the administration is in "regular contact" with countries in the Middle East and Europe grappling with the influx of more than 340,000 people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
"The Administration is actively considering a range of approaches to be more responsive to the global refugee crisis, including with regard to refugee resettlement," he said in a statement.
The comments come as the U.S. government faces rising international pressure to accept more refugees, many of whom are fleeing the civil war in Syria and areas in Iraq under the control of Islamic State militants.
Countries like Jordan and Turkey have absorbed the bulk of the refugees, and European countries are now facing a huge influx. The U.S. so far has accepted a limited number of Syria refugees -- a State Department spokesman last week said they likely would admit up to 1,800 refugees for permanent resettlement by the end of the fiscal year.
Without issuing any new estimates for refugee resettlement, White House officials on Tuesday stressed that the U.S. has provided over $4 billion in humanitarian assistance since the Syrian crisis began, and over $1 billion in assistance this year.
Any consideration of allowing more refugees into the United States, though, will be accompanied by concerns in Washington about security.
Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a statement Tuesday that "it doesn't make sense from a logistical or a security standpoint to move large numbers of them to far-off countries like the United States."
"Ultimately, we need to address the cause of this crisis or we will just have more and more migrants displaced," he said.
Earnest acknowledged Tuesday that safety and security would be taken into account in any resettlement effort.
The U.S. has sometimes expedited resettlement, as it did in 1975, when it helped tens of thousands of refugees from South Vietnam and other nearby areas settle in the United States after the fall of Saigon.
But for fiscal year 2015, which began Oct. 1, the U.S. government authorized 70,000 refugees to be resettled in the United States. The cap is set by the White House, which works with Congress and takes into account funding and the potential social and economic impact of refugees in the country.

Report: Patriots' Spygate scandal was bigger in scope than first realized

An ESPN story claims Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing coaches signals as far back as 2000.  …

As it turns out, Spygate had a larger scope than we realized.

ESPN had a huge story on Tuesday, saying when the league investigated the New England Patriots in 2007 they were found to have "a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents' signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons." There were 40 games worth of tapes, ESPN said.
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The tapes and notes were found, and then destroyed on commissioner Roger Goodell's orders: league executives "stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette Stadium conference room," the ESPN story said.
And this all leads us back to deflate-gate, and Goodell's overreaction to it.
The story said owners were upset with how Goodell handled Spygate. It's no secret to anyone anymore that Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been one of Goodell's biggest allies. In an emergency session at the league's spring meetings in 2008, Goodell told the owners that cheaters would be dealt with forcefully, ESPN wrote. One owner told ESPN that deflate-gate was "a makeup call" for the spying scandal.
Goodell, on ESPN Radio less than an hour after the Spygate story was published, said he hadn't seen the story but Spygate had nothing to do with the current scandal.
"I’m not aware of any connection between the Spygate procedures and the procedures we went through here," Goodell told ESPN Radio. "We obviously learn any time we go through a process, try to improve it and get better at it, but there’s no connection in my mind to the two instances."
The ESPN story goes into detail about how the Patriots allegedly used the taped information, highlighting a 2000 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the preseason, the Patriots allegedly taped the Buccaneers' defensive signals. New England played Tampa Bay in the season opener. Backup quarterback John Friesz was told to memorize the signals in the preseason film, watch the Bucs' signals from the sideline during the regular-season game, relay the defensive play to offensive coordinator Charlie Weis who would relay them to then-starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe, ESPN reported. Although the Patriots lost that game, ESPN said the Patriots knew 75 percent of the Buccaneers' defenses that day and the Pats "realized that they were on to something." A former Patriots assistant, who wasn't named, told ESPN the system of videotaping signals and cataloging signals "got out of control."
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Maybe the most shocking tale comes deep in the story, after all the descriptions of the Patriots' spying, when former New England coaches and employees are cited as describing an even more effective cheating system:

"Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team's offense."

Maybe you thought deflate-gate was dying down. Nobody figured on Spygate getting more fuel, eight years after the fact.
UPDATE — The Patriots responded to the ESPN story. Here's the team's statement, via CSNNE:
“The New England Patriots have never filmed or recorded another team’s practice or walkthrough. The first time we ever heard of such an accusation came in 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII, when the Boston Herald reported an allegation from a disgruntled former employee. That report created a media firestorm that extended globally and was discussed incessantly for months. It took four months before that newspaper retracted its story and offered the team a front and back page apology for the damage done. Clearly, the damage has been irreparable. As recently as last month, over seven years after the retraction and apology was issued, ESPN issued the following apology to the Patriots for continuing to perpetuate the myth: ‘On two occasions in recent weeks, SportsCenter incorrectly cited a 2002 report regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI. That story was found to be false, and should not have been part of our reporting. We apologize to the Patriots organization.’
“This type of reporting over the past seven years has led to additional unfounded, unwarranted and, quite frankly, unbelievable allegations by former players, coaches and executives. None of which have ever been substantiated, but many of which continue to be propagated. The New England Patriots are led by an owner whose well-documented efforts on league-wide initiatives – from TV contracts to preventing a work stoppage – have earned him the reputation as one of the best in the NFL. For the past 16 years, the Patriots have been led by one of the league’s all-time greatest coaches and one of its all-time greatest quarterbacks. It is disappointing that some choose to believe in myths, conjecture and rumors rather than giving credit for the team’s successes to Coach Belichick, his staff and the players for their hard work, attention to detail, methodical weekly preparation, diligence and overall performance.”

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