Conservative Blogger
Monday, July 4, 2016
Clinton's supporters, potential veeps defend presumptive nominee on emails, Benghazi, FBI probe
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| Rep. Becerra talks Clinton email probe, Benghazi report |
“She understands that she's got to earn people's trust,” California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra said of Clinton on “Fox News Sunday.” “She's going to work very, very hard to do that. And I give her credit for saying that she's made some mistakes.”
Becerra was one of four Democratic lawmakers purportedly on Clinton’s vice presidential short list to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.
He deferred on the question about being vetted for the job by saying, “That's a question that has to be asked of Secretary Clinton. … We’ll see.”
Becerra was joined on the Sunday shows by New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker (CNN,) Labor Secretary Tom Perez (NBC) and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (ABC.)
Clinton appears qualified to become president, considering she is a former first lady, secretary of state and U.S. senator for New York.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Such questions date back to the Clinton administration and more recently are about donors to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state -- including the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks and her use of a private email server for official correspondence while at the State Department.
A Gallup survey released Friday found 27 percent of Americans don’t trust Clinton.
On Saturday, Clinton was interviewed by the FBI regarding the agency’s investigation into whether her using a personal server for official communication violated government rules regarding the handling of classified information.
Earlier last week, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, held an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who will decide whether to bring criminal charges in the FBI probe.
Even Lynch acknowledge the meeting “cast a shadow” over the investigation. She also said that she “fully expects” to accept the recommendations of the FBI director and career prosecutors.
However, a Justice Department spokeswoman clarified Lynch’s remark by telling Yahoo News that “the attorney general will be the ultimate decider.''
Also last week, Republicans on the special committee investigating the attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, issued a final report on the matter that concluded Clinton as secretary of state and others in Obama administration told the public that the attacks were inspired by an anti-Islam video, despite eyewitness accounts that they were terror attacks.
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attacks.
Booker told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the FBI interview was merely “routine” and that Clinton being indicted over the emails is “just not going to happen.”
“We're going to be seeing an investigation closing up,” he said. “And I think she, like most Americans, wants this thing to be concluded and so we can move beyond it and focus on the real issues of this campaign.”
Booker dismissed the Clinton-Lynch conversation as little more than a chat about grandchildren and golf.
“This is nothing that in any way undermines this case,” said Booker, who also deferred to the Clinton campaign regarding a question about being a potential 2016 running mate. “I know a lot of it is coming from the Trump campaign … trying to whip up conspiracy theories.”
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, another potential Clinton running mate, told ABC’s “This Week” that he doesn’t think Clinton will be indicted.
“I'm not worried. I see what Clinton has done,” he said. “She's always been willing to talk. The story that is missing is what we don't know about (presumptive GOP presidential nominee) Donald Trump.”
He called the Clinton-Lynch encounter “unfortunate” and focused his answers on criticizing Trump and touting Clinton’s knowledge on key issues, including the future of the U.S. auto industry.
“She clearly understands these issues, and she talks in great depth about them in individual interviews and rallies. You get none of that from Donald Trump,” said Brown, also deferred to the Clinton campaign regarding a question about being a potential running mate.
Trump said this weekend on Twitter about the FBI investigation: "It was just announced -- by sources -- that no charges will be brought against Crooked Hillary Clinton. Like I said, the system is totally rigged!"
Labor Secretary Tom Perez on Sunday also showed his potential to be a good running mate in attacking the general election rival.
“Donald Trump is a fraud. He's the outsourcer in chief. And listening to him talk about how he's going to put America first again, he spent his entire career putting his own profits first,” said Perez who has already joined Clinton on the campaign trail, in part to bring progressives around to her trade policy.
Perez, in the pre-taped interview Friday with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” even responded to a vice president question by touting Clinton over Trump.
“Trump is such a volatile individual, and what I have seen working with Secretary Clinton is that she is a steady hand,” he said. “And I think she is exercised sound judgment throughout.”
Spokesman: Indiana governor had 'warm' meeting with Trump
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and his wife met with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife Saturday as Trump considers potential running mates, but a Pence spokesman told Fox News on Sunday that "nothing was offered."
"The Pences enjoyed spending a warm and productive time with the Trumps," Pence campaign spokesman Marc Lotter told Fox News. "They talked about policies that are working in Indiana and the future of this country."
Pence is running for re-election against former Democratic state House Speaker John Gregg.
Asked whether Trump and Pence had discussed the possibility of Pence becoming Trump's running mate, Lotter said "nothing was offered." Lotter declined to discuss Pence's level of interest in the position, echoing a comment from Pence last week that he did not want to comment on "a hypothetical."
Lotter referred other questions to Trump's campaign, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has never held public office and is considering a small group of political veterans as potential running mates.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
In addition to serving as governor, Pence served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years.
He also at one time had his own presidential ambitions but last year ruled out a run after his popularity fell in the wake of criticism over his handling of the state's religious objections law.
Suicide attack carried out near US diplomatic site in Saudi Arabia
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A suicide bomber carried out an attack early on Monday near a U.S. diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jiddah, according to the Interior Ministry.
The ministry said the attacker detonated his suicide vest when security guards approached him near the parking lot of a hospital. The attacker died and two security men were wounded with minor injuries, according to the ministry statement, which was published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Some cars in the parking lot were damaged.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki was quoted in the statement as saying the attacker caught the attention of the security guards, who noticed he was acting suspiciously at an intersection located on the corner of the heavily fortified U.S. Consulate in Jiddah, located by the Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital. Most of the consulate's staff had reportedly moved offices to a new location.
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed there were no casualties or injuries among the consular staff. The embassy said it remains in contact with Saudi authorities as they investigate the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for attack.
The Interior Ministry did not specify if it there are indications the bomber intended to target the U.S. diplomatic compound, saying an investigation was underway to determine his identity.
A 2004 al-Qaida-linked militant attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah killed five locally hired consular employees and four gunmen. The three-hour battle on the compound came amid a wave of al-Qaida attacks targeting Westerners and Saudi security posts.
More recently, Saudi Arabia has been a target of Islamic State group attacks that have killed dozens of people. The extremist Sunni group views the Western-allied Saudi monarchy and government as heretics. Saudi Arabia is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks had taken place in the kingdom in the last two years. Local affiliates of the IS group have targeted minority Shiites and security officials.
Monday's attack comes just days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during which observant Muslims fast daily from dawn to dusk.
The U.S. Embassy regularly issues advisory messages for U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia. In a message issued Sunday and another one issued after the attack Monday, the embassy urged Americans to "remain aware of their surroundings, and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country." It also advised citizens to "carefully consider the risks of traveling to Saudi Arabia."
Fourth of July 2016: What the Founders ask of us
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| President Abraham Lincoln |
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| Founding Fathers |
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| Founding Fathers |
It is remarkable that Abraham Lincoln never delivered a Fourth of July speech.
The closest he came was on July 10, 1858, in Chicago during one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, when Lincoln spoke of the Founders as “iron men.” He remarked how, every July 4, Americans celebrate those “iron men” and their extraordinary achievement, because we are “historically connected” with it.
Lincoln meant this literally. He was speaking to those who were old enough to remember the Founders from their youth and those descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
But then Lincoln spoke about another set of Americans, the ones whose families came here after the great Revolution was over. In a word, immigrants. Of these, Lincoln said:
“If they look back through this history and trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none. They cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ and then they feel that the moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration, and so they are.”
And so we are. None of us fought at Bunker Hill or Lexington or Concord. None of us endured famine, cold, or the impact of a musket ball. None of us signed our names to a document that made us traitors, fit to be hung.
Yet, despite all that, we are still Americans, and the Fourth is still our celebration, because we hold dear the “moral sentiment” for which those iron men fought and died — “That all men are created equal.”
Lincoln would fight and die for it, too.
Lincoln reassures us that this alone is enough to form that “historical connection” with men who in all other things bear no relation to us. Or, as he puts it: “That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”
As this speech was delivered in response to Stephen Douglas, a congressman from Illinois, Lincoln connects the “electric cord” in the Declaration with the question of slavery.
“If one man says [the Declaration] does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?”
In a few short paragraphs, Lincoln eviscerates Douglas’ contention that the ideals of the Declaration were reserved for only the true descendants of the American Revolution. It is remarkable that there was a time when Lincoln’s idea, now so central to our American mindset, was not dominant.
And yet we find our present culture riven by a hypersensitive strain of identity politics. We are told, even by some who belong to Lincoln’s party, that we should provide this group of Americans with one kind of government handout and that group with another.
We are told that we must “speak to” a certain group of Americans in a certain way or else lose their vote. We are told that skin color or sex determines whether a group is more or less deserving of government perks. If one disagrees, one is shouted down as a racist, bigot, or chauvinist.
Yet Lincoln would disagree. The Founders would disagree as well. And so must all whose connection with that great and glorious generation of “iron men” consists of embracing an ideal that was meant to be taken literally; namely, that all men are created equal.
But it is not enough to believe this. We must do more than reread those words this Fourth of July in between the barbeques and fireworks. We must do what the Founders did, and what Lincoln did in his own time, and fight against the insidious notion that those words mean other than what they say.
Lincoln believed the Founders asked this of him and his generation. It is what the Founders ask of us still.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Independence Day: What is it and why is it celebrated on 4 July?
On Monday, Americans will gather to celebrate Independence Day, which marks an event of massive historical significance for the country. These are the origins America's biggest holiday.
What is it?
4 July is the most significant national holiday in the United States. It celebrates the Declaration of Independence, adopted on 4 July, 1776. The Thirteen Colonies of America declared themselves to be states and no longer part of the British Empire, though the revolutionary war continued for some time after.
What’s the story behind it?
The original United States of America was made up of a collection of East Coast states known as the Thirteen Colonies. These were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
These mainly agricultural colonies were run by the British - who had been present on the continent since 1587 - and exploited for their resources, in particular tobacco.
While the relationship between the settlers and British was once amicable, tensions began to escalate over British laws and taxes, such as the Sugar Act, driven by British financial needs. There was also a growing sense of nationalism in the country.
From 1765, some settlers began to demand ‘no taxation without representation’, calling for their voice to be heard in the British parliament.
This tension sometimes erupted into fighting and acts of dissent, such as the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The event was a protest against the Tea Act, legislation which gave the British East India Company a monopoly on sales of tea in the Thirteen Colonies.
Further ill feeling was caused by the Coercive Acts – which became known as the ‘Intolerable Acts’ to American Patriots – which were implemented in response to the Boston Tea Party. The laws took power away from semi-autonomous Massachusetts.
In response to these factors, Continental Congresses – a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies – were convened. At the second meeting, in 1775, a war of independence against Britain was declared.
The next year, the Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 representatives of thirteen self-styled states (previously the Thirteen Colonies). The signatories included future president Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
The conflict continued until the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war in favour of an independent America.
How has it been celebrated through history?
Fireworks, speeches, parties, feasts and general celebrations have marked the day since the 18th century. In Bristol, Rhode Island, there was a salute of 13 gunshots in the morning and evening in 1777. The town has held the nation's longest running Independence Day celebration.
The first recorded music commemorating independence was the ‘Pslam of Joy’, written by Johann Friedrich Peter in Salem, North Carolina.
Many towns and cities across the US have their own annual celebrations.
How has the government marked it?
Congress made the day an unpaid national holiday for federal workers in 1870, and in 1938 it became a paid holiday across the country. Government officials also take part in celebratory functions and make speeches.
How do people celebrate it today?
Firework displays and parties are the most well-known activities associated with Independence Day. All major cities have fireworks displays and there is also one given by the White House. As a national holiday, it also serves as an occasion for reunions and vacations.
Republican Colorado official steps down after posting Obama meme on Facebook
DELTA, Colorado – The chairwoman of the Delta County Republican Party who was accused of favoritism and posting a racist meme on her Facebook page has resigned.
Party officials were upset after a photo compared President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee appeared on Linda Sorenson web page, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.
Sorenson stepped down after an accountability meeting was convened by the county's Republican Central Committee investigating the allegations. She announced her decision to resign in an email to supporters.
The committee was investigating allegations that Sorenson and others made that her Facebook page was "hacked" and whether she violated party rules by endorsing a primary candidate.
Sorenson said her Facebook page was hacked, but Colorado Party Chairman Steve House said that was not the case.
And in an interview in May after the image was posted, Sorenson said she didn't care if people were offended by the image.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
"There's no room for racism, intended or unintended, in society," he said. "It's best for the party, best for the county, that she step down."
Party members said Sorenson also urged people to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Daryl Glenn, even though six Republicans were competing for the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in the June 28 Republican primaries. Glenn won the primary.
Under party rules, officials of state and local parties, including their leaders, are not allowed to endorse one primary candidate over another.
"That is one of the hardest parts of that job," Suppes said. "You have to stay neutral no matter how strong your feelings are one way or another. You have to stay neutral."
Trump says he's filled convention speaker spots; tries to reverse slide, seize on Clinton's tough week
Donald Trump said Saturday that he’s filled all of the speaker slots for the fast-approaching Republican National Convention -- trying to capitalize on rival Hillary Clinton’s tough week and stop talk about key GOP figures distancing themselves from him and the event.
Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said on Twitter that he’ll announce the lineup on Wednesday and that he has “a long waiting list of those that want to speak.”
Trump critics have for weeks kept a running tally of top Republicans not attending the four-day convention in Cleveland that starts July 18 -- from such standard-bearers as former President George W. Bush to New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is in a tough re-election campaign.
Speaking on the convention stage is considered a coveted opportunity for politicians, especially for up-and-coming ones to raise their national profile. Barack Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention, for example, helped him ascend from a freshman Illinois senator to president.
Dr. Ben Carson, a Trump primary rival, will reportedly speak at this year’s GOP convention. However, the Trump campaign has not confirmed such reports. And Trump shot down an earlier report that former boxing champion Mike Tyson would speak.
Trump is also expected to announce his running mate at the convention, but a news report earlier this week stated the announcement could come earlier.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Clinton spoke Saturday morning to the FBI in Washington about the agency’s investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
She was in her Washington home and is expected to spend the rest of the weekend in the family’s home in Chappaqua, N.Y.
Her rough week started when top aide Huma Abedin had a six-hour deposition Tuesday with the conservative group Judicial Watch about Clinton’s use of the server and private email address for government communication while they both were at the State Department.
While the court-ordered deposition didn’t result in any ground break revelations, Abedin acknowledging the setup “frustrated” her and that a “hack” on the system was attempted sidetracked the Clinton campaign’s attacks on Trump.
"Judicial Watch represents everything that is wrong with our political system,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. “They are only interested in headlines and have made a complete mockery of our (judicial) system.”
Then on Thursday, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, added to the larger controversy when he initiated an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who decides whether to prosecute the server case based on the recommendations of career federal prosecutors and the FBI director.
Lynch, appointed by Obama, who backs Clinton’s White House bid, has said she’ll accept the recommendations of the agency officials.
Clinton, who has risen slightly in recent polls against Trump, has no scheduled events until Tuesday, when she attends an event in Washington, then in North Carolina with Obama, their first together in the 2016 campaign.
Last year, Clinton caused a big flap over the Fourth weekend at a parade in key primary state New Hampshire when campaign staffers used a rope to keep reporters away from her.
Trump, a first-time candidate and billionaire businessman, struggled in June to gain GOP support in large part after suggesting a judge in a civil suit against his Trump University real estate school might be bias, considering Trump has proposed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and the judge’s parents are from Mexico.
Trump’s next scheduled event is Wednesday in Cincinnati.
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