Conservative Blogger
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Illinois lawmaker's daughter charged in staple gun attack on political rival
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| Good Old Democrats, don't you just love them. |
Jessica Soto and her boyfriend Bradley Fichter, both 26, of Chicago, were charged with three counts of aggravated battery in a March 6 attack on Robert Zwolinski, Reuters reported.
Zwolinski was defeated by state Rep. Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago, in a primary election for the state's 4th District Tuesday.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Jessica Soto and Fichter were stapling pro-Soto campaign flyers to a building when Zwolinski and his girlfriend drove by, got out of their car and approached them. An argument then ensued.
Cook Couny prosecutors said Fichter punched Zwolinski in the eye and Soto joined in the squabble. Soto then allegedly used the staple gun on Zwolinski's face. The politician suffered multiple injuries.
Frank Avila, the couple’s lawyer, accused Zwolinski of starting a fight with his clients and possibly putting a staple in his own head just for attention. He told Judge Maria Kuriakos Cecil that Zwolinksi is the one who should be facing charges.
"Taking down somebody's sign and ripping it down is destruction of property," Avila argued.
Zwolinski posted photos on social media of a staple sticking out of his forehead, a bloodied head and a swollen nose apparently from the alleged attack.
"The girl was yelling, while I was on the ground fighting the man off of me, 'This is Soto's territory! This isn't your territory,'" he said.
Bond was set at $25,000 each and Soto and Fichter were both ordered not to go near Zwolinski, his girlfriend or his campaign headquarters.
Source: Secret meeting with White House led to Rice, Rhodes Benghazi testimony
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| She didn't care then and she doesn't care now. |
The source familiar with the negotiations said the White House originally said no to the request to have National Security Adviser Rice and deputy Rhodes speak to the committee probing the 2012 Benghazi attacks.
But Gowdy, R-S.C., stepped in to personally negotiate for their appearances at the secret meeting, held late January in Charlotte, N.C., with members of the White House Counsel’s office.
It was during that meeting, where both parties traveled outside of Washington, where the details were finalized and agreed to.
Rice and Rhodes, considered central witnesses in the investigation particularly over their role in crafting the administration’s faulty narrative blaming protests over an anti-Islam video, ended up testifying individually for four hours apiece.
Asked Friday about the meeting that apparently led to that testimony, the White House did not respond directly.
“I will just say as a general matter that the White House and the administration has, despite what Republicans acknowledge is the pure political motivation of that committee, has sought to cooperate with them, only because they're a co-equal branch of government,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, claiming the administration has “cooperated with them repeatedly and provided them access to senior administration officials and access to thousands of pages of documents and emails and other materials.”
Fox News also has learned new details about the upcoming Saturday testimony of former CIA Director David Petraeus.
After Petraeus testified in January behind closed doors, he agreed to a second session, which was described to Fox News as an opportunity to “close the loop” on several issues after new information came to light from the Rhodes and Rice testimony.
The second session is expected to take place in a secure area of the Capitol at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday. Few members of the committee will be there, officials told Fox News. The meeting will mostly include counsel for the committee.
Trump supporters, protesters clash outside rally in Salt Lake City
Supporters of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and protesters clashed after a rally in Utah on Friday.
Crowds who chanted “Donald Trump” were met with “Mr. Hate Out of Our State” as police in riot gear blocked the entrance to the Infinity Event Center in Salt Lake City. Protesters tried to rush the door of the building and got into screaming matches with Trump supporters who were barred from entering the venue.
According to KSTU-TV, people who were exiting the building were being pelted with rocks. Some were seen protesters tearing down a security tent that the U.S. Secret Service used to screen attendees before they entered the building.
"Like I said, overall, you know our officers were on standby, we were just hoping everything was peaceful, and, no problems whatsoever, and fortunately it turned out just as we anticipated," Salt Lake City Police Det. Cody Lougy told KSTU-TV.
Lougy told the Salt Lake Tribune that he didn’t think anyone was arrested.
According to the paper, the heated demonstrations outside the Infinity Event Center weren’t the only protests around the city.
Tony Yapias, the director of Proyecto Latino, played a voice mail message over a loudspeaker he received Friday morning of someone telling him to leave the U.S. Yapias told the Tribune that Trump’s rhetoric is playing a part in the increased tension drawn toward Latinos.
He said the rally – which was attended by about 150 people – was to show that the Hispanic community in Utah will not back down from his hate speech. Some in the crowd were heard chanting “Get out Trump” in Spanish.
Trump spoke to a crowd people in Salt Lake City and took a shot at former presidential candidate and Utah resident Mitt Romney, who said he was going to support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the state’s caucuses.
"Are you sure he's a Mormon? Are we sure?" he jokingly asked his crowd at the Infinity Event Center.
Romney, who has made Utah his adopted home, said Friday that he plans to vote for Cruz in the state's Tuesday caucuses. He made the announcement on his official Facebook page as Kasich was speaking to about 600 people during a town hall at Utah Valley University.
Romney has campaigned with Ohio Gov. John Kasich in other states but stopped short of endorsing him. In addition to his position as a prominent member of Utah's dominant faith, Romney is also revered in the state for leading a turnaround of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
It's unclear to what degree his endorsement of Cruz may sway GOP voters in the Tuesday caucuses. The Texas senator was already expected to have a leg up on the other Republican contenders because of his emphasis on religious liberties and backing from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Fired professor Melissa Click: I had 'inexperience with public protests'
Melissa Click and the University of Missouri are taking their cases to the court of public opinion.
On the same day the ex-MU assistant communications professor penned a Washington Post defense of her actions – which included assaulting a student journalist and yelling profanities at a police officer – the governing board that fired her pushed back, telling the Association of American University Professors on Thursday that Click’s ouster was demanded because “existing university procedures failed to address the seriousness of [her] conduct.”
Click claims she didn’t get due process before The University of Missouri System’s governing board fired her last month. Her appeal of that decision was rejected Tuesday.
In the Post piece, Click takes responsibility for her actions – which occurred during campus protests over perceived racial inequality at MU – however, she also excuses them as the deeds of someone who had “inexperience with public protests.”
She added, “But I do not understand the widespread impulse to shame those whose best intentions unfortunately result in imperfect actions. What would our world be like if no one ever took a chance? What if everyone played it safe?”
Click said her situation raised “broader cultural, ethical and legal questions about how surveillance and social media significantly impact the terrain of public engagement.”
Her confrontation with a student journalist attempting to cover campus protests in November was caught on the journalist’s camera. Her incident with police in October, at the university’s homecoming parade, was caught on an officer’s bodycam, and the footage was obtained by The Missourian. Both videos quickly made the rounds on social media.
“Whose interests are served when our drive to combat societal imperfections is defeated by fears of having our individual imperfections exposed?” she wrote in The Post.
The AAUP is investigating the circumstances surrounding Click’s firing. The UM board replied to the group’s concerns in a letter, instead of meeting with the association’s three-person investigative committee, The Missourian reported.
Threatening letter reportedly sent to Donald Trump's son
New York City police were investigating a threatening letter sent to one of the sons of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump late Thursday, authorities said.
According to the New York Post, a letter bearing a Massachusetts postmark and addressed to Eric Trump, 32, was delivered to his residence on Manhattan's Central Park South.
According to the paper, white powder fell out of the envelope when Eric Trump's wife, Lara Yunaska, opened it. Police, fire crews and the FBI all responded to the scene.
It was not immediately clear what the substance was.
CBS News also reported that the letter warned that Donald Trump's children would be harmed if the real estate mogul did not withdraw from the presidential race.
Hillary isn't winning over many pundits, even on the left
Hillary Clinton is clobbering Bernie Sanders—and yet getting negative reviews from some of the pundits.
How is that possible? The Democratic race is essentially over. President Obama is privately telling donors it’s time to get on the Hillary train, the New York Times reports. A front-runner who wins in state after state usually basks in a winner’s aura as the party coalesces around her, and draws glowing profiles of how she and her team did it.
Sure, Hillary was always expected to beat Bernie. It’s also true that Clinton has never been beloved by the press, and the feeling is mutual.
But the larger problem is the outlook as the commentary class looks ahead to the fall.
Until the last couple of weeks, the conventional wisdom was that a Trump nomination would all but assure a second Clinton presidency. After all, she’s the former senator and secretary of State with an awesome political machine, and he’s the untested billionaire with a penchant for divisive rhetoric. Plus, Democrats have an Electoral College edge and have won the popular vote in five of the last six campaigns.
But some commentators see troubling signs in Clinton’s performance so far and wonder how she would withstand a Trump onslaught. The Donald has high negatives, to be sure, but Hillary does as well.
An unsparing assessment comes from Joe Klein, who has
known the Clintons for a quarter century and mostly written
sympathetically about them since his 1992 New York magazine cover story
on Bill Clinton.
Klein agrees with Hillary’s self-assessment that she is not a natural politician, but goes much further in weighing a Trump matchup:
“Clinton seems particularly ill equipped for the task. She is our very own quinoa and kale salad, nutritious but bland. Worse, she’s the human embodiment of the Establishment that Trump has been running against…
“Indeed, her real problem is that she’s too much of a politician. She still speaks like politicians did 20 years ago, when her husband was President. This year, the candidates who have seemed the most appealing–Trump, Sanders, John Kasich–don’t use the oratorical switchbacks that have been beaten to death since John F. Kennedy.”
It’s no secret that Sanders has pushed Clinton to the left on trade, immigration, Wall Street and other issues. But Klein says that is often viewed as dissembling:
“There is an odd new law of U.S. politics: You can lie, as Trump does all the time, egregiously, but you can’t temporize. You can’t avoid a position on the XL pipeline or the Trans-Pacific trade deal, as Clinton tried to do in the campaign. You can’t try to please too many people too much of the time. Raising your voice to make a point–which Clinton does all the time, disastrously, because it seems such a conscious act–won’t get you anywhere unless you’re really angry.
“In the end, I’m not at all certain that Clinton can beat Trump.”
A note about her speaking style: When Clinton won five states on Tuesday night, I tweeted that she was shouting her speech and that it would be more effective with the audience at home if she was more conversational. I didn’t say she was shrill, I didn’t say she should smile, and in the past I’ve criticized Sanders for shouting his way through debates.
But I was hit with hundreds of tweets declaring me to be a horrible, misogynistic sexist. Some of this was a wave powered by what others had said about her speech. Maybe my quick take was wrong. But I hope we’re not entering a period where any criticism of the presumptive Democratic nominee is treated as sexism.
Other left-wing pundits, driven in part by ideology, fear the worst. This Salon headline boils it down:
“Hillary Will Never Survive the Trump Onslaught: It’s Not Fair, But It Makes Her a Weak Nominee.”
Clinton’s largest problem, in my view, is her low polling marks on honesty, a result of the email scandal and perhaps decades of scars of accumulated accusations, some of them fair and some exaggerated.
Veteran journalist Jeff Greenfield, writing earlier in Politico, spells out three reasons why Clinton could prove to be a weak candidate:
“First, Hillary Clinton commands little trust among an electorate that is driven today by mistrust. Second, her public life—the posts she has held, the positions she has adopted (and jettisoned)—define her as a creature of the ‘establishment’ at a time when voters regard the very idea with deep antipathy. And finally, however she wishes it were not so, however much she argues that she represents the future as America’s first prospective female president,
Clinton still embodies the past, just as she did in 2008 when she lost to Barack Obama. The combination of those three factors is already playing out in the Democratic primary, where younger voters are turning away from her and embracing a geriatric, white-haired alternative in droves.”
When Clinton recalibrates, says Greenfield, “she always embraces the politically popular stand.”
However lukewarm the Democratic base may be about Hillary, she enjoys broad support within the party and most Bernie backers should have no trouble shifting their allegiance to her. The same can’t be said for Trump, who is weathering a Republican revolt against the likelihood of his winning the nomination.
We’ll know Hillary is solving her enthusiasm problem when she starts getting better reviews from journalists on the left.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
How is that possible? The Democratic race is essentially over. President Obama is privately telling donors it’s time to get on the Hillary train, the New York Times reports. A front-runner who wins in state after state usually basks in a winner’s aura as the party coalesces around her, and draws glowing profiles of how she and her team did it.
Sure, Hillary was always expected to beat Bernie. It’s also true that Clinton has never been beloved by the press, and the feeling is mutual.
But the larger problem is the outlook as the commentary class looks ahead to the fall.
Until the last couple of weeks, the conventional wisdom was that a Trump nomination would all but assure a second Clinton presidency. After all, she’s the former senator and secretary of State with an awesome political machine, and he’s the untested billionaire with a penchant for divisive rhetoric. Plus, Democrats have an Electoral College edge and have won the popular vote in five of the last six campaigns.
But some commentators see troubling signs in Clinton’s performance so far and wonder how she would withstand a Trump onslaught. The Donald has high negatives, to be sure, but Hillary does as well.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Klein agrees with Hillary’s self-assessment that she is not a natural politician, but goes much further in weighing a Trump matchup:
“Clinton seems particularly ill equipped for the task. She is our very own quinoa and kale salad, nutritious but bland. Worse, she’s the human embodiment of the Establishment that Trump has been running against…
“Indeed, her real problem is that she’s too much of a politician. She still speaks like politicians did 20 years ago, when her husband was President. This year, the candidates who have seemed the most appealing–Trump, Sanders, John Kasich–don’t use the oratorical switchbacks that have been beaten to death since John F. Kennedy.”
It’s no secret that Sanders has pushed Clinton to the left on trade, immigration, Wall Street and other issues. But Klein says that is often viewed as dissembling:
“There is an odd new law of U.S. politics: You can lie, as Trump does all the time, egregiously, but you can’t temporize. You can’t avoid a position on the XL pipeline or the Trans-Pacific trade deal, as Clinton tried to do in the campaign. You can’t try to please too many people too much of the time. Raising your voice to make a point–which Clinton does all the time, disastrously, because it seems such a conscious act–won’t get you anywhere unless you’re really angry.
“In the end, I’m not at all certain that Clinton can beat Trump.”
A note about her speaking style: When Clinton won five states on Tuesday night, I tweeted that she was shouting her speech and that it would be more effective with the audience at home if she was more conversational. I didn’t say she was shrill, I didn’t say she should smile, and in the past I’ve criticized Sanders for shouting his way through debates.
But I was hit with hundreds of tweets declaring me to be a horrible, misogynistic sexist. Some of this was a wave powered by what others had said about her speech. Maybe my quick take was wrong. But I hope we’re not entering a period where any criticism of the presumptive Democratic nominee is treated as sexism.
Other left-wing pundits, driven in part by ideology, fear the worst. This Salon headline boils it down:
“Hillary Will Never Survive the Trump Onslaught: It’s Not Fair, But It Makes Her a Weak Nominee.”
Clinton’s largest problem, in my view, is her low polling marks on honesty, a result of the email scandal and perhaps decades of scars of accumulated accusations, some of them fair and some exaggerated.
Veteran journalist Jeff Greenfield, writing earlier in Politico, spells out three reasons why Clinton could prove to be a weak candidate:
“First, Hillary Clinton commands little trust among an electorate that is driven today by mistrust. Second, her public life—the posts she has held, the positions she has adopted (and jettisoned)—define her as a creature of the ‘establishment’ at a time when voters regard the very idea with deep antipathy. And finally, however she wishes it were not so, however much she argues that she represents the future as America’s first prospective female president,
Clinton still embodies the past, just as she did in 2008 when she lost to Barack Obama. The combination of those three factors is already playing out in the Democratic primary, where younger voters are turning away from her and embracing a geriatric, white-haired alternative in droves.”
When Clinton recalibrates, says Greenfield, “she always embraces the politically popular stand.”
However lukewarm the Democratic base may be about Hillary, she enjoys broad support within the party and most Bernie backers should have no trouble shifting their allegiance to her. The same can’t be said for Trump, who is weathering a Republican revolt against the likelihood of his winning the nomination.
We’ll know Hillary is solving her enthusiasm problem when she starts getting better reviews from journalists on the left.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
Moving Pieces: GOP alliances shift in bids to block, boost Trump
Donald Trump’s emergence as the big fish in a now-tiny pool of three remaining Republican presidential candidates has touched off a remarkable scramble by political powerbrokers to quickly choose sides, all while talk of a potential independent run isn’t going away.
The feverish effort to either boost or block Trump is leading to unexpected alliances as some hitch their name to the GOP front-runner, and others do whatever they can to try and thwart him. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former candidate who previously had backed Jeb Bush, was the latest surprise, announcing Thursday he’s now banking on Ted Cruz.
Graham bluntly acknowledged he prefers Ohio Gov. John Kasich – but said only Texas Sen. Cruz has a path to defeating Trump in the primary.
“If we give the banner of the Republican Party to Donald Trump, we tarnish it, maybe, forever. That might be the end of the Republican Party as we know it,” warned Graham, who plans to hold a fundraiser for the Texas senator.
On the sidelines, a trio of conservative leaders also held a meeting in Washington Thursday to discuss a “stop-Trump” strategy. As first reported by Politico, Erick Erickson, the founder of RedState.com, was joined by former adviser to President George. W. Bush Bill Wichterman, and South Dakota businessman Bob Fischer.
Erickson told Fox News on Thursday the meeting was attended by conservative activists who see the Trump candidacy as a threat to the conservative cause. “Contrary to what the Trump campaign says, it wasn’t the elite. … It was the guys who have been knocking on doors for Republican candidates for decades – people who are actually committed to conservative principles ahead of the party,” he said.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Graham, for instance, previously had taken to trashing Cruz in interviews. He told CNN last month the senator might be worse than President Obama and if the GOP choice is between Trump and Cruz, "it's the difference between poisoned or shot -- you're still dead."
Now, Graham is setting those misgivings aside as the prospect of Trump winning the nomination becomes increasingly likely.
Even Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, while stopping short of an endorsement, reportedly said Wednesday that Cruz is the “only conservative left in the race.” Back on Capitol Hill Thursday, Rubio said “there is still time to stop a Trump presidency.” Meanwhile, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who had backed Rubio, says she’s now rooting for Cruz.
At the Erickson meeting, among the options reportedly being discussed was sending a last-minute candidate to the convention in Cleveland if no candidate reaches the coveted 1,237 delegates and the convention is deadlocked.
He told Fox News the biggest consensus point was that both Trump and Hillary Clinton are unacceptable candidates for the presidency. Regarding a strategy to defeat Trump, he said “the consensus was that everyone would rather settle this on the convention floor at the Republican convention in Cleveland.”
The meeting comes just days after Trump won at least three states, including Florida’s 99 delegate winner-take-all contest, and declared victory in a fourth, Missouri.
Before Tuesday, Cruz also had ex-candidates Rick Perry and Carly Fiorina in his corner.
But even as Cruz gains additional support, Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are gaining new backers.
Trump already had the endorsements of former candidates Chris Christie and Ben Carson. He added to that the support this week of Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
“Donald Trump is clearly the will of the voters. We need to listen to them, coalesce behind him,” Scott told Fox News.
And Kasich has picked up support from Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, as well as from former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt. Utah votes next week, alongside Arizona.
“Governor John Kasich had a decisive and critical win in Ohio,” Leavitt said in a statement. “I trust his temperament and the tone of his campaign. I worked closely with Governor Kasich over many years and I have witnessed his ability to bring people together to get things done. I think he has the best opportunity to beat Hillary Clinton.”
While Trump vows he will eventually win the nomination, party leaders are unsure whether he might enter the convention with the requisite 1,237 delegates. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday it’s becoming more likely that the convention will be open.
But Trump could still emerge the nominee at a contested convention.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News on Thursday that the talk of a contested convention is only complicating the process. He said Trump and Cruz have 80 percent of the delegates and any insurgent candidate from the establishment would be taken down by the two.
“It’s an amusing parlor game, it has no meaning in the real world,” Gingrich said. “If they want to form the let’s elect Hillary Clinton club, fine.”
There was yet another reported plot to thwart Trump. Earlier in the month, it was reported that Bush met with Rubio, Cruz, and Kasich individually before last Thursday’s debate in Miami. Rubio’s spokesperson then urged his supporters to vote for Kasich in Ohio, a state he won.
Additionally, Cruz pulled advertising and campaign staffers from both Florida and Ohio.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to face a string of controversies. He was scolded by Ryan on Thursday after saying there could be “riots” if he’s not chosen at the convention. The Daily Caller also reported that a Trump op-ed published in a Guam publication appeared to be partly plagiarized from an op-ed from Carson published in a Northern Mariana Islands publication.
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