Rude Democrat Cartoons

Surveillance memo could be declassified Friday; Trump warns Dems on DACA

The FBI said Wednesday that the bureau has “grave concerns” about the classified memo that purportedly reveals government surveillance abuses, but White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says it is going public, anyway.

“With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,” the FBI said in a statement. “As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

But earlier Tuesday, Kelly told Fox News in an exclusive interview the classified memo will be made public soon. Kelly said White House national security aides have been reviewing the memo.
“It'll be released here pretty quick I think and the whole world can see it,” he said.
The bureau’s claim that the memo involves “omissions of fact” came a day after a source told Fox News that two senior FBI officials reviewed the memo and “could not point to any factual inaccuracies” in the memo itself.

FBI Director Christopher Wray viewed the memo on Sunday  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

FBI OFFICIALS REVIEW SURVEILLANCE MEMO, COULD NOT CITE 'ANY FACTUAL INACCURACIES'
The two officials – one from the bureau’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division – followed up after an initial review of the memo during a rare Sunday trip to Capitol Hill by FBI Director Christopher Wray.
One senior U.S. official told Fox News, though, that Wray "expressed concern about the accuracy of the memo" and told others in the meeting the memo "gives an inaccurate impression of the bureau's work on this matter."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes reacted to the bureau’s written statement by saying: “Having stonewalled Congress’ demands for information for nearly a year, it’s no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies.”

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says the memo will be released

“The FBI is intimately familiar with ‘material omissions’ with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses,” the California Republican said. “Regardless, it’s clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign.”
“Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again,” he added.
On Tuesday night, President Trump was overheard telling a GOP lawmaker at the State of the Union that he’s “100 percent” behind releasing the memo.
The House Intelligence Committee on Monday evening voted to release it, but Trump is able to object to the release. Lawmakers have said the memo details abuses involving FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A source close to the matter said the memo details the Intelligence Committee’s oversight work for the FBI and Justice Department, including the controversy over unmasking and FISA surveillance.
TRUMP OVERHEARD SAYING HE IS ‘100 PERCENT’ BEHIND RELEASING SURVEILLANCE MEMO
“The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI,” the bureau said in its statement. “We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.”

Fidel Castro's oldest son commits suicide, Cuban state media report

Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, left, the oldest son of dictator Fidel Castro, killed himself, according to Cuban state media.  (AP, File)

The oldest son of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro committed suicide at the age of 68, Cuban state media announced on Thursday.

Fidel “Fidelito” Castro Diaz-Balart is the oldest son of Castro and his first wife, Mirta Diaz Balart.

BREAKING: Cuban state media say Fidel Castro's eldest son has killed himself.

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 2, 2018

Diaz-Balart was said to have killed himself Thursday morning after receiving months of treatment for a "deeply depressed state," according to official website Cubadebate. He reportedly "required a hospitalization regime then outpatient follow-up" as part of his treatment.
Fidel Castro died in November 2016 at age 90. His brother, Raul, took over as Cuba's leader in 2008.
Before his death, Diaz-Balart was a scientific adviser to the Council of State and was the vice president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences.
Of all Castro's offspring, only Diaz-Balart, the angel-faced, blond boy from revolution-era photographs, was publically recognized. He bore a striking resemblance to his father, which earned him the nickname Fidelito, or Little Fidel.
Diaz-Balart was born in 1949 and brought to the United States in the 1950s after his parents divorced. His mother's family had ties to the Batista government, which Castro would eventually overthrow. As a result, the former Cuban leader wanted his son kept from his ex-wife's family, leading to an ongoing custody battle over the boy.
"I refuse even to think that my son may sleep a single night under the same roof sheltering my most repulsive enemies and receive on his innocent cheeks the kisses of those miserable Judases," Castro wrote to his half-sister Lidia in 1956.
While Castro was in Mexico preparing for the guerrilla war, he convinced his ex-wife to send Fidelito to visit him for two weeks. Once the boy was there however, Castro refused to send him back. Later, while the boy was out for a walk with Castro's sisters, three armed men in a car grabbed Diaz-Balart so he could be reunited with his mother.
As an adult Diaz-Balart rose to the top post at Cuba's Atomic Energy Commission before his father removed him for unpublicized reasons in the early 1990s.

Hurt: Pelosi Consumed With Hatred for Trump, Has No Vision for Her Party

On "America's Newsroom" on Tuesday, Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif) over-the-top negative reaction to President Donald Trump's first State of the Union address shows that she has been consumed with "hatred" for the president.
"Without any basis on evidence, data and the rest, he makes these statements about newcomers to our country and equating it in a criminal way. What was that about?" Pelosi said during a press conference with Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday. "It was — I wouldn't say confusing. It was worse than that. It was dangerous what he said last night."
"And it is instilled fear," she continued. "What he is doing brings tears to the eyes of the Statue of Liberty, and instills fear in the hearts of the people who are concerned about our DREAMers."
Hurt said this is just more exaggeration from Pelosi after her now-infamous "crumbs" remark about the positive effects of the Republican tax cuts.

Pelosi Twitter tear targets 'obsessed' Nunes ahead of House intel memo's imminent release

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi unleashed a Twitter storm Thursday, blanketing her social media feed with calls for the removal of U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which voted to release a contentious memo on purported surveillance abuses.

Using the hashtag #RemoveNunes, Pelosi wrote late Thursday: “RETWEET if you are concerned about @DevinNunes’ obsession with prioritizing short-term politics over America’s long-term national security!”

Underneath the post warning of Nunes’ “obsession,” which Pelosi pinned to the top of her Twitter account, were four more urgently worded posts – also made Thursday – calling for Nunes’ departure.
“@DevinNunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,” she wrote Thursday. “@SpeakerRyan must immediately remove him from this position.”
Pelosi echoed that language in a letter she sent to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday.
“Chairman Nunes’ deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be immediately removed from this position,” Pelosi wrote in the letter.
Pelosi soon doubled down in a follow-up post on Twitter, this time employing an illustration: Nunes appears superimposed behind the words “NUNES MUST GO” in all-capital letters.
“@DevinNunes is putting our national security at risk, ignoring concerns from the FBI & DOJ to advance a conspiracy theory,” Pelosi tweeted. "RT if you know Speaker Ryan must #RemoveNunes immediately!”
Then, in the afternoon: “We have to be able to trust that the House Intel Chairman will put long-term national security before short-term politics. @DevinNunes has proven he can’t.”
Finally, Pelosi wrapped up Thursday’s anti-Nunes barrage by linking approvingly to a Washington Post editorial critical of the California Republican congressman.
The release of the House memo, which is reported to outline surveillance abuses, is likely to come Friday morning, Fox News is told.
President Donald Trump already had made clear he supports the release of the memo -- before U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, late Wednesday charged that Nunes made "material changes" to the memo since its review by committee members.

Sanctuary State California Cartoons

ICE chief warns illegal immigration 'not going to be OK anymore': report

Acting ICE director Thomas Homan addresses the White House briefing in Washington in 2017. He said this week he will not back down from enforcing immigration laws.  (Reuters)

In a fiery speech to hundreds of law enforcement officers, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement excoriated the political enablers of illegal immigration on Wednesday, saying he’ll “never back down” from safeguarding the border.
Speaking at the Border Security Expo in San Antonio, Thomas Homan singled out sanctuary cities and the ongoing congressional debate over so-called “Dreamers.”
“If we get a clean DACA bill, shame on all of us,” Homan said, referring to the Obama administration’s contentious Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "You can’t address DACA and reward people that brought children here illegally and not address underlying reasons of DACA.”
Homan, who said that he “100 percent support[s] the wall,” added that he is “sick and tired of the vilification of the men and women of ICE and the Border Patrol,” according to multiple accounts of his speech.
“If you violate the laws of this country, if you enter illegally, which is a crime, it’s not going to be OK anymore,” Horman said.
Sanctuary cities, Homan charged, endanger federal officers because they often force agents to make arrests in homes and workplaces – rather than controlled environments, like state jails.

“If you violate the laws of this country, if you enter illegally, which is a crime, it’s not going to be OK anymore."

- Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan

"They [sanctuary cities] bankroll the very criminal organizations that have killed Border Patrol agents and killed special agents in ICE," Homan said, according to an account of his speech in the Washington Examiner.
"It irritates me that a politician who has never held a badge and a gun, who doesn’t understand what we do every day, makes a decision of putting their own political careers ahead of the health and safety of a law enforcement officer," he said. "A shame!"
The approximately 40-minute speech came on the same day that ICE formalized a policy to send deportation agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests.
The two-page directive said ICE will enter courthouses only for specific targets, such as convicted criminals, gang members, public safety threats and immigrants who have been previously deported or ordered to leave.
Family, friends and witnesses won't be picked up for deportation but ICE leaves a caveat for "special circumstances."
The policy, signed by Homan, says immigration agents should generally avoid arrests in non-criminal areas of the court, like family court and small claims, unless it supervisor approves.
ICE — in a not-so-subtle jab at sanctuary cities— said "increasing unwillingness of some jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE in the safe and orderly transfer of targeted aliens inside their prisons and jails has necessitated additional at-large arrests."

RNC Sets Fundraising Record in 2017

In this May 5, 2017, file photo, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel addresses Hispanic business owners and community members at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce in Lansing, Mich. Republican senators are bucking President Donald Trump’s calls to revive the health care debate. And Trump just ousted his only top White House aide with deep links to the Republican Party. Trump’s fundraising prowess is the engine of the Republican National Committee and a lifeline for every Republican planning to rely on the party for financial help during next year’s congressional races. “The president is somebody who absolutely is an asset when it comes to fundraising,” Ronna Romney McDaniel said.

The Republican National Committee continues to set fundraising records as it records a new high for a non-election year.

The RNC announced on Wednesday it raised nearly $133 million in 2017. That figure is more than double what the Democratic National Committee raised last year.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said the numbers reflect voters’ optimism and continued support as President Trump fulfills his promises to the American people.
The RNC is said to have almost $40 million on hand, while the DNC has under $7 million on hand with more than $6 million dollars of debt.

Nashville council may probe whether mayor's affair was 'on taxpayers' dime'

Nashville Councilwoman Tanaka Vercher, left, has asked the council's lawyer to determine her authority to investigate the finances of Mayor Megan Barry, top right, who admitted having an extramarital affair with Sgt. Robert Forrest, her former security chief.

The Nashville city council's budget chairwoman is reviewing her options to probe Democratic Mayor Megan Barry’s possible misuse of taxpayer funds during her extramarital affair.

Councilwoman Tanaka Vercher, who heads the budget and finance committee, has asked the council’s lawyer to determine her authority to investigate Barry’s expenses during her tryst with with her former security chief, the Tennessean reported.

Barry racked up more than $33,000 in travel expenses combined between her and the security officer, Sgt. Robert Forrest, from January to late October 2017, and has said all of the trips were business-related.
According to a review by the Tennessean, Forrest accumulated more than $7,000 in overtime working on trips attended by Barry and others.
And in 2017, Forrest and Barry went on nine trips together – including one excursion to Greece -- that they said were "business related."
Forrest said Jan. 17 he would retire Wednesday after 31-plus years with Metro Nashville Police. He spent 14 years of that tenure supervising the mayor's security detail over three administrations.
“Right now the perception is — whether it’s true or not — that this affair occurred on taxpayers’ dime,” Vercher said, the Tennessean reported.

"Right now the perception is — whether it’s true or not — that this affair occurred on taxpayers’ dime.”

Barry vowed during a Wednesday news conference to cooperate with any investigators reviewing her conduct.
“Absolutely,” Barry said. “Our records are available for anybody to look at.
“There were no policies that were violated,” she added. “Nothing illegal happened. The records will absolutely show that the expenses matched what the overtime expected.”
The popular mayor, who was elected in 2015, said she plans to continue in office.

Trump critic and GOP pollster Frank Luntz: 'I owe Donald Trump an apology'

Conservative pollster Frank Luntz reconciled his 2015 public row with Donald Trump, saying Tuesday that he now owes the president an apology after his State of the Union address.

“Tonight, I owe Donald Trump an apology. Tonight, I was moved and inspired. Tonight, I have hope and faith in America again. It may go away tomorrow. But tonight, America is great again,” Luntz wrote in a series of tweets.

“Even in foreign policy and national security this speech (is) a perfect blend of strength and empathy. These heroic stories break our hearts, but sturdy our resolve. This is the Trump his voters wanted him to be,” Luntz continued.

"This is the Trump his voters wanted him to be."

The pollster’s praise for Trump did not stop there. He added that Trump's SOTU address “represents the presidential performance that Trump observers have been waiting for — brilliant mix of numbers and stories, humility and aggressiveness, traditional conservatism and political populism.”
“Only one word qualifies: Wow,” Luntz wrote, admitting in another tweet that he has “criticized the President’s language a lot in recent months.
Luntz famously got into the public spat with then-candidate Trump in 2015 after he ran a focus group following the first Republican presidential debate that torched Trump’s prospects of becoming the Republican nominee for president.
Trump accused the top Republican pollster – describing him as “unfair” and “terrible” – of running biased focus groups because he once refused to hire Luntz’s research firm for the campaign.
"This has been going on, he's putting the arm on me all the time, and then he does these polls that are totally in violation of every other poll that was done," Trump told Business Outsider back then.
"I watch this guy do a really negative report on me, and the only reason he did it, in my opinion, is because I didn't want to hire him commercially.”
Luntz denied the accusations at the time, saying he was focused only on conducting accurate focus groups, noting that Trump "launches an attack on everyone who is even remotely critical."
"If the group had said Donald Trump won this debate ... I would be the world's greatest pollster," Luntz told the publication. "Because it didn't, I'm not."
During the presidential election night in 2016, Luntz asked not be called a Republican anymore because of Trump. “I am not part of this,” he told a Yahoo News host.
“I’m not part of that system, I’m not part of that negativity. This is not something I was involved in this year," he said. "I will leave it to others to explain and to try to get themselves out of this mess.”
But not everyone accepted Luntz’s embrace of Trump. MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brezezinski, who had the pollster on the show Wednesday, criticized him for asking why people cannot give deserved credit to Trump.
“I think because he’s literally screwed everybody in that room over a few times too many. He’s been vulgar,” she said. “He’s been racist and accused one of the senators in that room of giving sexual favors for money. He’s insulted the wife of a Republican senator in that room in the worst way possible.”
She added: “You tell me that that room is supposed to respond like this (begins clapping her hands) to the great dictator.”