Planned Parenthood Cartoons

Shutdown threat returns after ObamaCare repeal meltdown

The specter of another government shutdown is emerging on Capitol Hill, amid concerns that Republican leaders who failed to unite the party last week on an ObamaCare overhaul will likewise struggle to finalize a spending package before the April 28 deadline.
“We should not take things for granted, especially after what happened last week,” Oklahoma GOP Rep. Tom Cole told Fox News. “The last thing we need is a self-inflicted crisis. … There frankly isn’t much time.”
Voters largely blamed congressional Republicans for the last shutdown, in 2013, when they engaged in a budget standoff with Senate Democrats and President Obama over ObamaCare funding.
Much of the federal government shuttered from Oct. 1-16, during the fight driven by Tea Party sage Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and the conservative Heritage Foundation -- both influential in sinking House Speaker Paul Ryan’s ObamaCare overhaul bill.
To avoid a repeat this year, Congress is eyeing a short-term measure known as a continuing resolution. This could bundle the roughly 12 spending bills together, despite Ryan, R-Wis., pledging last year to try to end that practice.
Cole, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the spending bills that fund all federal agencies, voiced concern about that approach and said these bills should have been done late last year.
But this year’s spending bill standoff is now emerging as a sequel to the clash over an ObamaCare replacement, with Ryan again having to juggle the interests of the chamber’s moderate Republicans with those of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
About 20 of the Freedom Caucus’ roughly 35 members opposed Ryan and President Trump’s ObamaCare overhaul plan, arguing it didn’t fully repeal and replace the struggling 2010 health care law. Ryan and Trump got no support from House Democrats to get the requisite 216 House votes to pass their plan, which they scrapped Friday.
In this year’s budget battle, Ryan will likely need Democratic support, which will be tough to get if Republicans try to use the package to defund Planned Parenthood and seek spending cuts elsewhere. All this comes before debate even begins over the budget plan for next year, which Trump wants to include billions more for the military, and a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
And any compromise on spending cuts will almost certainly spark opposition from the Freedom Caucus.
“Republicans have always needed help from the Democrats,” Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House’ second-ranking Democrat, said Tuesday. “They never came up with … votes on their own.”
He and Cole agreed this week on at least one point: that GOP-led House committees should have agreed months ago on spending bills.
“They had time to figure it out,” Hoyer said. “They haven't figured it out.”
The House now has 237 Republicans, 193 Democrats and five vacant seats, which means Ryan needs 216 votes to pass legislation.
The Republican-led Senate also is behind on its spending bills, having largely been consumed by confirmation hearings for the Trump administration and now getting the votes to install Judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.
The budget problem is further compounded by Congress taking a roughly two-week recess starting Friday. House and Senate appropriators purportedly will have a bill ready in the final week of April -- which doesn't leave much time before the deadline.
Ryan signaled Tuesday that congressional Republicans would still revisit ObamaCare, suggesting some foes of the last bill have offered to compromise but making clear that the more immediate focus is on tax reform and other big policy issues.
“We want to get this right. We are going to keep talking to each other,” he said. “But I’m not going to put a timeline on it.”

Planned Parenthood videos: Anti-abortion activists charged with 15 felonies for secret tapes

Two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood were charged with 15 felonies, California prosecutors announced Tuesday.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Becerra said the two used a fictitious bioresearch company to meet with women's health care providers and covertly record them.
Prosecutors said they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent.
Daleiden and Merritt allegedly filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person and the 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.
Daleiden called the charges “bogus” and that they were coming from “Planned Parenthood's political cronies."
"The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners," Daleiden said.
Planned Parenthood said in a tweet that the charges send a “clear message… You can’t target women & health care providers without consequences.”
Daleiden and Merritt had previously been indicted in Texas on similar charges in January of 2016, but all of the charges were eventually dropped by July as prosecutors said a grand jury had overstepped its authority. The grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after finding no wrongdoing turned around and indicted Daleiden and Merritt instead.

FBI scrutinized by Congress over probe into alleged Russia-Trump link

Two leading House and Senate committees are examining the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Russia’s possible links to Trump campaign associates and the country’s alleged interference with the 2016 presidential election.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating whether the FBI wrongly included political opposition research from Trump’s opponents in its probe, and then paid the author of that controversial report, a former British spy, to work for the FBI on its investigation. The committee’s probe began March 6 with the letter Grassley sent the FBI and was furthered Monday with requests for information from the company that did the opposition research.
“When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts, it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics,” Grassley said Monday.
The House Intelligence Committee, headed by Rep. Devin Nunes, R- Calif., is looking into how classified documents containing foreign surveillance transcripts with references to Trump’s transition team were illegally disclosed to the media. The committee’s probe began Jan. 25.
The leaks could have come from the FBI, a source close to the investigation notes, because that agency requested multiple Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants that helped capture some of the foreign surveillance. In addition, sources say, the FBI is not cooperating with the House investigation, unlike the National Security Agency, which has been transparent with the committee. In addition, multiple sources suggest that British intelligence also passed along information to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Meanwhile, the FBI will take full control over the law enforcement investigation into Russia’s interference in the election, Trump’s possible ties to Russia, as well as the leaks, Fox News has learned.
In Grassley’s probe, he is calling into question the FBI’s use of a “controversial and unsubstantiated dossier” compiled by a political opposition research company against then-presidential candidate Trump.
Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C.-based research and strategic intelligence company, was paid during the campaign by backers of Trump’s Republican and Democrat opponents to perform opposition research, Grassley said. And that company hired former British spy Christopher Steele to write the dossier that was distributed widely to political opponents, the media and the FBI.
The unverified reported was published by the online publication BuzzFeed and included embarrassing allegations that Russian intelligence supposedly could use against Trump.
Most concerning, Grassley said, is that “Fusion GPS and Steele reportedly shared the dossier with the FBI, which then offered to pay Steele to continue his political opposition research on Trump.”
Grassley wants to determine “the extent to which the FBI has relied on the political dossier in its investigation.” The senator also has requested documentation from Fusion GPS as to who hired and paid them, when Steele was hired, how the FBI got involved and whether Fusion GPS was aware of the FBI paying Steele. 
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Chairman Nunes said last Wednesday that a source in the intelligence community presented him with “dozens” of reports that were produced from “incidentally collected” communications between members of the Trump transition team and foreign targets. Nunes met with his intelligence source at a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in the old executive office building on the White House grounds where they could access the computers without being noticed. They couldn’t go to the source’s agency and use the secured computer network, a source told Fox News, because it would “out” the source.
Nunes said Trump staff members’ identities reportedly were “unmasked” within intelligence agencies through foreign surveillance unrelated to Trump or Russia, and the names were illegally disseminated among intelligence agencies and to the media in what many believe was an effort to embarrass Trump and undermine his presidency.
At least one of those unmasked was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who had information about his communication with the Russian ambassador leaked to press, resulting in a public scandal and his resignation.
Nunes’ committee, like the FBI, has been looking into what actions Russia took against the U.S. during the 2016 election, whether anyone from a political campaign conspired in the activities; whether the communications of officials or associates of any campaign were subject to any kind of improper surveillance; and which intelligence officials leaked classified information that exposed foreign surveillance, conversations between President Trump and other world leaders.
While Nunes refutes Trump’s claims that Obama had him wiretapped during the campaign, Nunes said “…. it's still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President's Trump and his associates.”
An FBI spokesperson said the agency does not have a comment on Grassley’s letter or any additional comments on the House probe.

Spicer slams 'false' report claiming ex-official blocked from testifying to Nunes panel

The White House fired back Tuesday at a report claiming former acting Attorney General Sally Yates was blocked by Trump administration officials from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.
Yates, an Obama administration appointee who previously served as deputy AG, was fired by President Trump in January after she refused to defend the president's travel ban. The Washington Post reported she was blocked from testifying at a hearing originally expected for Tuesday because the topics she intended to discuss were covered by what's known as executive privilege.
During the White House briefing Tuesday, Press Secretary Sean Spicer flat-out denied there was any truth to the report.
"I hope she testifies. I look forward to it," Spicer shot back, when asked about the article.
"The report in the Washington Post is 100 percent false," Spicer told reporters.
A senior administration official also told Fox News in an email earlier Tuesday, "The White House has taken no action to prevent Sally Yates from testifying and the Department of Justice specifically told her that it would not stop her and to suggest otherwise is completely irresponsible."
The conflicting claims over Yates are the latest turn in the developing controversy involving the House Intelligence Committee's work on the Russia investigation. FBI Director James Comey testified last week to the committee that his bureau was investigating possible ties between Russia and Trump campaign associates, while rejecting Trump assertions that his team may have been subject to surveillance by the Obama administration.
Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., later claimed he's learned that Trump transition team communications may have been incidentally picked up during surveillance operations. After reports he reviewed secret documents on White House grounds, top Democrats called on him to recuse himself from Russia matters -- a call he has rejected, with support from House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, on Tuesday claimed Yates was planning to provide information to Nunes' committee that likely would contradict White House statements. At the same committee session, the panel also was planning to hear from former CIA Director John Brennan.
But sources said the committee abruptly canceled the hearing, after Yates' lawyer sent a letter to the White House.
The Friday letter from lawyer David A. O'Neil to White House Counsel Don McGahn said: "If I do not receive a response by Monday, March 27, at 10 am EDT, I will conclude that the White House does not assert executive privilege over these matters with respect to the hearing or other settings."
O'Neil had written that committee staff had informed Yates she would be questioned on the "January 2017 communications regarding concerns about the conduct of a senior White House official." In the letter obtained by Fox News, O'Neil also argued that "any claim of privilege has been waived as a result of the multiple public comments of current senior White House officials describing the January 2017 communications."
The White House did not provide a response, and Yates and her lawyer then believed they tacitly had approval to speak to the committee. While the hearing was canceled, Spicer said Tuesday the White House was not opposed to her testimony.

Sen. Chuck Schumer Cartoons

Father of Maryland high school rape suspect arrested by ICE

 JESSUP, Md. –  The father of an 18-year-old Rockville High School student charged with the rape of a fellow classmate has been arrested for being in the country illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez said

43-year-old Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes was arrested last Friday “after a review of his immigration history revealed he was unlawfully present in the United States” from Guatemala.
AG SESSIONS: I WOULD 'PLEAD' WITH MARYLAND NOT TO BECOME SANCTUARY STATE
Sanchez-Reyes has been issued a notice to appear in immigration court and is currently being detained at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup.
Sanchez-Reyes is the father of 18-year-old Henry Sanchez-Milian, one of two teenage students charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sexual offenses of a 14-year-old girl inside a bathroom at the Montgomery County high school.
Authorities have said Sanchez-Milian is also in the country illegally after he was stopped and detained by a U.S. border patrol agent in Texas last August.
MARYLAND GOVERNOR VOWS TO FIGHT 'SANCTUARY' MOVEMENT AMID RAPE CASE
“He was stopped at the border and detained by ICE,” said Andrew Jezic, the 18-year-old’s attorney. “He was detained for 12 days, but then ICE made the discretionary decision to simply let him go. They put him on a plane in Texas and his father had to pay for the ticket. His father picked him up at BWI Airport and he's been in this country with the full awareness of ICE.”
Jezic said his client is innocent and the encounter with the 14-year-old girl was pre-planned and consensual.

Schumer goes off on Trump supporter at NYC restaurant, witness says

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., caused a scene at a Manhattan restaurant when he began yelling at a wealthy and well-connected Donald Trump supporter that the POTUS is “a liar.”
Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, lost his cool on Sunday night at Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo, according to witnesses.
He was dining with friends when he encountered Joseph A. Califano Jr. — the former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter and domestic policy adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson — and his wife, Hilary, who were having a quiet dinner.
Onlookers said Schumer was incensed that Hilary — the daughter of William S. Paley, the founder and chairman of CBS — had voted for Trump, even though her husband, Joseph, is a well-known Democrat.
One witness said of the restaurant rant, “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside.” On the sidewalk, Schumer carried on with his fantastical filibuster: “ ‘How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar!’ He kept repeating, ‘He’s a liar!’ ”
Hilary confirmed the confrontation, telling Page Six, “Sen. Schumer was really rude . . . He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything.”

Trump set to undo Obama's action against global warming

Moving forward with a campaign pledge to unravel former President Obama's sweeping plan to curb global warming, President Trump on Tuesday is set to sign an executive order that will suspend, rescind or flag for review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels.
As part of the roll-back, Trump will initiate a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants.
The regulation, which was the former president's signature effort to curb carbon emissions, has been the subject of long-running legal challenges by Republican-led states and those who profit from burning oil, coal and gas.
Trump, who has called global warming a "hoax" invented by the Chinese, has repeatedly criticized the power-plant rule and others as an attack on American workers and the struggling U.S. coal industry. The contents of the order were outlined to reporters in a sometimes tense briefing with a senior White House official, whom aides insisted speak without attribution, despite Trump's criticism of the use of unnamed sources.
The official at one point appeared to break with mainstream climate science, denying familiarity with widely publicized concerns about the potential adverse economic impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and more extreme weather.
In addition to pulling back from the Clean Power Plan, the administration will also lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands.
The Obama administration had imposed a three-year moratorium on new federal coal leases in January 2016, arguing that the $1 billion-a-year program must be modernized to ensure a fair financial return to taxpayers and address climate change.
Trump accused his predecessor of waging a "war on coal" and boasted in a speech to Congress that he has made "a historic effort to massively reduce job-crushing regulations," including some that threaten "the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners."
The order will also chip away at other regulations, including scrapping language on the "social cost" of greenhouse gases. It will initiate a review of efforts to reduce the emission of methane in oil and natural gas production as well as a Bureau of Land Management hydraulic fracturing rule, to determine whether those reflect the president's policy priorities.
It will also rescind Obama-era executive orders and memoranda, including one that addressed climate change and national security and one that sought to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change.
The administration is still in discussion about whether it intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. But the moves to be announced Tuesday will undoubtedly make it more difficult for the U.S. to achieve its goals.
Trump's Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, alarmed environmental groups and scientists earlier this month when he said he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. The statement is at odds with mainstream scientific consensus and Pruitt's own agency.
The overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed studies and climate scientists agree the planet is warming, mostly due to man-made sources, including carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons and nitrogen oxide.
The official who briefed reporters said the president does believe in man-made climate change.
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy accused the Trump administration of wanting "us to travel back to when smokestacks damaged our health and polluted our air, instead of taking every opportunity to support clean jobs of the future."
"This is not just dangerous; it's embarrassing to us and our businesses on a global scale to be dismissing opportunities for new technologies, economic growth, and US leadership," she said in a statement.
Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University, told The New York Times that Trump’s order signals that the U.S. will fall short of its pledge to cut emissions of about 26 percent by 2025. He said Trump’s order “sends a signal to other countries that they might not have to meet their commitments—which would mean that the world would fail to stay out of the climate danger zone.”

Freedom Caucus Cartoons