Harry Reid: The poster child for term limits

I am a proud citizen of beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. I escaped New York for "the Monte Carlo of America"-- beautiful weather and sunshine all year long, with no personal income taxes, no business income taxes, no capital gains taxes, no inheritance taxes and the 9th lowest property taxes in America. What does a conservative call a place like that? HEAVEN.

And things just got even better. Nevada U.S. Senator Harry Reid just announced his retirement. Around the country there is shock. In Nevada there is only relief.

Harry Reid has served in the U.S. Senate for almost 30 years. He’s certainly the worst Senator of my lifetime -- the past 53 years. Amazingly, Harry isn’t just my Senator, he’s my neighbor. If we made a reality show together, it would be called "The Odd Couple."

Harry Reid will be remembered as the chief enabler for the massive expansion of government, spending, taxes, regulation and debt under Obama. Term Limits would have forced Harry out of the Senate before much of this damage was ever done. What a blessing that would have been for America and the U.S. economy.

My illustrious neighbor's story just kept getting sadder and more tragic. Harry got hurt jogging. 

Harry got hurt lifting weights.

Harry suffered a series of strokes.
Harry made a series of bizarre gaffes.

Senator Reid’s last few years in the Senate have been so filled with falls, injuries, medical emergencies and embarrassing statements, I actually felt sorry for him. I wish him a wonderful retirement. It’s time for golf, grandchildren and cruises to Mexico. Harry Reid clearly made the right decision for the country, the Senate, the people of Nevada and himself.

Then there’s Harry Reid’s record. By moving from a pro-gun, NRA-endorsed, “conservative Democrat” upon entering the Senate…to Obama’s point man for an extreme left radical agenda, Harry did great damage to the U.S. economy, our children’s future and his own legacy.

Harry Reid will be remembered as the chief enabler for the massive expansion of government, spending, taxes, regulation and debt under President Barack Obama.
Harry Reid enabled Obama to depress the private sector with the most regulations in history; thereby killing millions of jobs; suffocating the middle class; damaging small business; and allowing an ill-fated government takeover of the greatest healthcare system in the world.

Harry enabled Obama to achieve all this while purposely preventing the U.S. Senate from voting on any bill that might help the economy, or undue the damage of Obama’s radical Nanny State policies. Harry refused to allow bills to be voted on, for fear of hurting the re-election campaigns of his fellow Democratic Senators. He even presided over the passage of “the nuclear option” for the first time in U.S. Senate history, thereby breaking tradition and allowing nominations to pass the Senate with merely a simple majority.

But I’m a big fan of turning lemons to lemonade. There is a way to turn Harry Reid’s legacy into a positive. Let’s pass new term limit restrictions with Harry Reid’s last few years in mind. Term Limits would have forced Harry out of the Senate before much of this damage was ever done. What a blessing that would have been for America and the U.S. economy.

Let’s make certain politicians like Harry Reid can’t stay past their “spoil date.” Let’s take that decision out of their hands -- just as airline pilots are forced into retirement at a certain age, for the good of the flying public.

Harry Reid is indeed the poster child for Term Limits.
Let’s honor him by calling this bill “The Harry Reid Term Limits Rule.” In honor of Harry, from this day forward all politicians should be limited to two terms. One term in office. And one term in prison.

US raises pressure on Israel over Palestinian state

Obama is Wrong.

The U.S. exerted new pressure against Israel by leaving open the possibility of letting the United Nations set a deadline for a Palestinian state, in what would be a departure from using American veto power to protect its close Mideast ally.
The prospect of a U.N. Security Council resolution arose Friday when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris would introduce a measure setting a deadline for a negotiated settlement of the conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, possibly within two years.
On dozens of occasions in recent decades, the U.S. has lobbied against approval of such resolutions, using its veto authority as a permanent member of the Security Council as a last resort. In response to past resolutions concerning the Middle East, the White House has echoed Israel’s contention that U.N. action cannot substitute for direct negotiations.
But the White House took a markedly different tack on Friday. Press secretary Josh Earnest said the Obama administration was aware of Mr. Fabius’s comments. “But we have not yet actually seen a text of a resolution so I’d reserve comment on a hypothetical resolution,” he said.
While he didn’t indicate whether the U.S. would actively favor such a resolution, the absence of any dissuasion was telling. White House officials didn’t elaborate on the Obama administration’s position.
If the U.S. were to abstain from voting on the resolution it could still pass if it gained the required nine-vote majority, further isolating Israel and fanning international criticism against it.
The adoption of such a resolution wouldn’t be expected to have an immediate impact on Israeli policy but would add to the mounting pressure.

Senate GOP asking new questions about emails for Clinton and Abedin, who had special employment status

Senate Republicans are renewing efforts to learn why Huma Abedin, a top assistant to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was allowed to keep working at the agency under a special, part-time status while also being employed at a politically-connected consulting firm.
The new requests are being made by Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, following revelations that both women used a private Internet server and email accounts for State Department correspondence.
Grassley says the earlier requests to the department have been largely ignored, so the new ones have gone to the department’s inspector general and to Secretary of State John Kerry, seeking their involvement.
Grassley’s probe started in 2013, when he requested all communications between Abedin, after she switched from a full-time deputy chief of staff for Clinton to a part-timer, then started working for Teneo, a consulting firm that says it “brings together the disciplines of government and public affairs.”
A July 2013 letter from the department to Grassley, provide by the senator’s office, states Abedin worked full-time from January 2009 to June 2012. It also states Abedin did not list outside employment upon ending her full-time employment and that the department retained her as an adviser-expert at the hourly rate of a SGA GS-15/10.
The most recent available federal documents show the rate as $74.51 with a maximum pay of $155,500 annually.
“A number of conflict-of-interest concerns arise when a government employee is simultaneously being paid by a private company, especially when that company (is) Teneo,” Grassley said in the March 19 letter to Kerry that also raised concerns about Abedin and other department employees appearing to have been “improperly categorized” as special government employees, or SGEs.
Grassley says he specifically wants to know “what steps the department took to ensure that … Abedin’s outside employment with a political-intelligence and corporate-advisory firm did not conflict with her simultaneous employment at the State Department.”
The letter to department Inspector General Steve Linick also questions whether the department’s “excessive” use of SGE designations undermines ethics standards and if Clinton and Abedin’s private emails have the potential to impede the department from fulfilling Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests, over which the upper chamber’s Judiciary Committee has legislative jurisdiction.
Grassley says the department’s answers have so far been “largely unresponsive” and points to a November 2014 response that in part states “an individual may receive an SGE designation if he or she is joining the department from the private sector or is coming from another government position.”
However, Abedin came neither from the private sector nor another government position, Grassley argues.
“She converted from a full-time employee … with seemingly little difference in her job description or responsibilities,” he wrote.
Grassley also argues that the purpose of the SGE program is to help the government get temporary services from people with special knowledge and skills whose principal employment is outside the government.
However, Abedin essentially kept the same job and was subsequently hired by Teneo and the Clinton Global Initiative.
“It is unclear what special knowledge or skills Ms. Abedin possessed that the government could not have easily obtained otherwise from regular government employees,” Grassley wrote.
The State Department says Abedin was an SGE until February 2013, essentially doing the same job that she did as a full-time employee, advising on Clinton’s schedule and travel. It also states she reviewed department ethics guidelines but was allows to work part-time without a new security clearance.
Grassley also says the department’s current use of the SGE designation “blurs the line between public and private sector employees” and that department employees getting full-time salaries for what appears to be part-time work is “especially troubling.”
“The taxpayer deserves to know,” Grassley wrote.

As deadline looms, Iran nuke talks take on frantic tone

The international negotiations to strike a nuclear agreement with Iran intensified and took on a frantic tone Saturday, as France and Germany joined in the talks that have recently been limited to the United States and Tehran.
The negotiators are trying to reach an outline of an agreement by Tuesday, toward a final agreement by June 30 that would end Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
Secretary of State John Kerry and the other negotiators have met multiple times this weekend in various formats in the Swiss town of Lausanne.
“The serious but difficult work continues,” a senior State Department official said. “We expect the pace to intensify as we assess if an understanding is possible.”
In another nod to the fast-approaching deadline, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to emphasize the importance of reaching an agreement.
Iranian negotiator Majid Takht-e Ravanchi denied a news report that the sides were close to agreement on a text, and other officials spoke of remaining obstacles, including Iranian resistance to limits on research and development and demands for more speedy and broad relief from international sanctions.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters as he arrived that the talks have been "long and difficult.”
“We've advanced on certain issues, not yet enough on others," he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, meanwhile, suggested the blame for any impasses lies with the U.S. and its partners.
"In negotiations, both sides must show flexibility," he wrote on Twitter. "We have and are ready to make a good deal for all. We await our counterparts' readiness."
Iranian nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi described one or two issues as becoming "twisted." He told Iran's ISNA news agency that the sides were working to resolve the difficulties.
Kerry met early in the day with Zarif, before extended sessions with Fabius and Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The foreign ministers of Russia, China and Britain also were expected in Lausanne on Sunday.
"We now are standing at the threshold of a political resolution and a collective political impulse,” said Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. “I think these chances (of an agreement) significantly exceed 50 percent."
But the diplomats also said their presence does not necessarily mean a deal is almost done.
Steinmeier avoided predictions of an outcome, saying only that a nuclear deal could help ease Mideast tensions.
"These are decisive days before us after 10 years, nearly 12 years, of negotiations with Iran," he told reporters. "The endgame of the long negotiations has begun. ... The final meters are the most difficult but also the decisive ones. ... I can only hope that in view of what has been achieved over the last 12 months that the attempt for a final agreement here will not be abandoned."

He also said that a successful conclusion of the nuclear talks with Iran "could perhaps bring a bit more calm to the region."
Iran says its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful; other nations fear it is seeking to develop weapons.
Republicans in Congress and other critics of the Obama administration’s foreign policy fear the United States will agree to any deal, in an attempt to end years of negotiations.
The GOP-led Senate has pushed an effort to give Congress a vote on a final deal and has tried to impose additional sanctions on Iran, a strategy the White House has essentially rejected as a deal-breaker.
Progress has been made on the main issue: The future of Iran's uranium enrichment program. It can produce material for energy, science and medicine but also for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.
The sides tentatively have agreed that Iran would run no more than 6,000 centrifuges at its main enrichment site for at least 10 years, with slowly easing restrictions over the next five years on that program and others Tehran could use to make a bomb.
The fate of a fortified underground bunker previously used for uranium enrichment also appears closer to resolution.
Officials have told The Associated Press that the U.S. may allow Iran to run hundreds of centrifuges at the Fordo bunker in exchange for limits on centrifuge work and research and development at other sites. The Iranians would not be allowed to do work that could lead to an atomic bomb and the site would be subject to international inspections.
Instead of uranium, any centrifuges permitted at Fordo would be fed elements used in medicine, industry or science, the officials said.
Even if the centrifuges were converted to enrich uranium, there would not be enough of them to produce the amount needed to make a weapon within a year -- the minimum time frame that Washington and its negotiating partners demand.
A nearly finished nuclear reactor would be re-engineered to produce much less plutonium than originally envisaged.
Still problematic is Iran's research and development program. Tehran would like fewer constraints on developing advanced centrifuges than the U.S. is willing to grant.
Also in dispute is the fate of economic penalties against Iran. Additionally, questions persist about how Iran's compliance with an agreement would be monitored.
Fabius said France was not yet satisfied on that point.

Indiana gov supports effort to 'clarify' religious objections law

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said he would support legislation to “clarify the intent” of the new law that has drawn widespread scrutiny over concerns it could allow discrimination against gay people.
Pence told the Indy Star he has been in talks with legislative leaders and expects to introduce a clarification bill to the religious objections law sometime this week.  Pence did not provide any details, but told the newspaper that making gay Indiana residents a protected legal class is “not on my agenda.”
Pence disputes that the religious objections law would allow discrimination against gay people, although many Indiana businesses, convention-organizers and others have disagreed. The governor said he did not anticipate “hostility that’s been directed toward out state.”
"I just can't account for the hostility that's been directed at our state," he told the newspaper. "I've been taken aback by the mischaracterizations from outside the state of Indiana about what is in this bill."
Since the Republican governor signed the bill into law Thursday, Indiana has been widely criticized by businesses and organizations around the nation, as well as on social media with the hashtag #boycottindiana. Consumer review Angie’s List announced Saturday it had pulled out of a planned expansion in Indianapolis because of the new law.
Angie's List had sought an $18.5 million incentive package from Indianapolis' City-County Council to add 1,000 jobs over five years. But founder and CEO Bill Oseterle said in a statement Saturday that the expansion was on hold "until we fully understand the implications of the freedom restoration act on our employees.
Hundreds protested Saturday outside the Indiana Statehouse against the new law. Protesters held up signs reading “no hate in our state.”
Pence and other supporters of the law contend the discrimination claims are overblown and insist it will keep the government from compelling people to provide services they find objectionable on religious grounds. They also maintain that courts haven’t allowed discrimination under similar laws covering the federal government and 19 other states.
But state Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, said Indiana's law goes further than those laws and opens the door to discrimination.
"This law does not openly allow discrimination, no, but what it does is create a road map, a path to discrimination," he told the crowd, which stretched across the south steps and lawn of the Statehouse. "Indiana's version of this law is not the same as that in other states. It adds all kinds of new stuff and it moves us further down the road to discrimination."
The measure prohibits state laws that “substantially burden a person’s ability to follow his or her religious beliefs. The definition of a “person” includes religious institutions businesses and associations. The legislation takes effect in July.
Zach Adamson, a Democrat on Indianapolis' City-County Council, said to cheers that the law has nothing to do with religious freedom but everything to do with discrimination.
"This isn't 1950 Alabama; it's 2015 Indiana," he told the crowd, adding that the law has brought embarrassment on the state.
Among those who attended the rally was Jennifer Fox, a 40-year-old from Indianapolis who was joined by her wife, Erin Fox, and their two boys, ages 5 and 8, and other relatives.
Fox said they married last June on the first day that same-sex marriage became legal in Indiana under a federal court ruling. She believes the religious objections law is a sort of reward to Republican lawmakers and their Conservative Christian constituents who strongly opposed allowing the legalization of gay marriage in the state.
"I believe that's where this is coming from — to find ways to push their own agenda, which is not a religious agenda; it's aimed at a specific section of people," Fox said.
Although many Indianapolis businesses have expressed opposition to the law and support for gays and lesbians, Fox worries her family could be turned away from a restaurant or other business and that her sons would suffer emotionally.
"I certainly would not want them to think that there's something wrong with our family because we're a loving family," she said.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican who opposed the law, said he and other city officials would be talking to many businesses and convention planners to counter the uproar the law has caused. "I'm more concerned about making sure that everyone knows they can come in here and feel welcome," Ballard said.
The Indianapolis-based NCAA has expressed concerns about the law and has suggested it could move future events elsewhere; the men's Final Four will be held in the city next weekend.

Satan Cartoon

State senator won’t back down, apologize for saying he’d shoot a cop

IDIOT

LINCOLN, Neb. — State Sen. Sen. Ernie Chambers isn’t backing down.
The state lawmaker from Omaha defiantly stood Thursday on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature and rejected many of his colleagues’ calls for him to apologize — or even resign — for comparing cops to ISIS terrorists and suggesting he’d shoot a cop if he weren’t nonviolent and had a gun.
“I meant what I said and I said what I meant,” Chambers said.
He said the irony is that lawmakers were discussing freedom of expression on Wednesday, and said it was ignorant and “idle talk” to suggest taking any kind of legal action, since lawmakers are immune from civil or criminal liability in connection with anything they say in the Legislature.
“I’m not going to resign,” he said. “I’m not going to apologize. Why do you think I would apologize?”
For two hours, senators took to the microphone to talk about what they thought of Chambers’ comments, which were made last week during a legislative hearing on a gun bill that would allow people to carry concealed guns in bars.
State Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha led the charge, saying he’ll stand up every day and demand a “strong denouncement” and apology, noting Thursday morning that two police officers were killed in other states in the past 48 hours.

Senate Democratic Leader Reid announces retirement

Better Late than Never!

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced Friday he will retire at the end of his term, closing a long and controversial career in Congress that spanned four decades.
The five-term Nevada Democratic senator announced the decision in a YouTube video message.
Appearing with bruises on his face from a recent at-home exercising accident, Reid, 75, said the injury has allowed him and his family to have a "little down-time," giving him time to think.
"We've got to be more concerned about the country, the Senate, the state of Nevada than us. And as a result of that, I’m not going to run for reelection,” the senator said in the video.
Reid, ribbing his Republican counterpart, added: "My friend, Senator McConnell, don't be too elated. I'm going to be here for twenty-two months."
Though Reid plans to serve out his term, his departure touches off a leadership shuffle among Democrats. Reid already is endorsing Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for his position -- and other Democrats are doing the same.
"It's the caucus' decision but Senator Reid thinks Senator Schumer has earned it," a Reid spokesman told Fox News.
Schumer's most obvious competition would have been Senate Democrats' No. 2, Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. -- however, Durbin is backing Schumer, Fox News has learned.
Reid, who helped President Obama pass a series of initiatives including the health care law, has been a controversial figure -- and during his tenure as majority leader was blamed by Republicans for much of the dysfunction in the chamber. Republicans won the majority last fall.
"On the verge of losing his own election and after losing the majority, Senator Harry Reid has decided to hang up his rusty spurs," National Republican Senatorial Committee Director Ward Baker said in a statement welcoming the announcement.
Praise from fellow Democrats, meanwhile, was effusive.
Obama called him a "fighter" who stood up to special interests.
"Harry is one of the best human beings I've ever met," Schumer said. "His character and fundamental decency are at the core of why he's been such a successful and beloved leader."
First elected to the Senate in 1986, Reid previously served in the House. He has endured tough re-election battles in 1998, 2004 and most recently 2010 -- against Tea Party-backed candidate Sharron Angle.
Among other decisions, Reid will be remembered for allowing the so-called "nuclear option" in late 2013, when he unilaterally moved to change Senate rules to allow a simple majority vote to overcome filibusters for certain nominations. While procedural, the change was significant because it meant the Senate no longer needed the usual 60 votes to advance on controversial nominations.
Republicans quickly gloated that his seat would be a prime pickup opportunity in 2016. GOP figures ranging from Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval to Rep. Joe Heck and others could be interested.

NY gang boss resurfaced at Florida mosque, sending radicalized jihadists overseas, say feds

A Muslim extremist who once led a murderous New York gang dubbed “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and then resurfaced decades later as a radical imam at a Florida mosque is begging for help funding his legal defense against charges he committed tax fraud to, according to authorities, finance terror training for his followers.
Marcus Dwayne Robertson, 46, a former U.S. Marine known to his supporters at his Orlando-based Fundamental Islamic Knowledge Seminary as “Abu Taubah,” is currently being held in a local jail on a gun conviction. He faces sentencing on April 30 on a 2014 conviction of tax fraud, but more serious charges could be coming, given that prosecutors say he used the money to send his radicalized followers to Africa to learn how to kill Americans.

“The United States believes that the defendant is still an extremist, just as he was in the early 1990s.”- Federal prosecutors

“The United States believes that the defendant is still an extremist, just as he was in the early 1990s,” prosecutors said in recent court filings. “The only differences are that the defendant is now focused on training others to commit violent acts as opposed to committing them himself and the violent acts are to occur overseas instead of inside the United States.”
Robertson, according to recent Facebook posts, will continue to proclaim his innocence to all remaining allegations against him.
“The Prosecution is attempting to characterize me as a ‘Teacher of Terrorists.’ … They are attempting to twist my statements to fit into a terrorist plot. …. In reality, they know I am not a terrorist teacher,” Robertson wrote on his web site.
In his younger life as the leader of the “Forty Thieves” gang, Robertson “murdered several individuals; participated in assassination attempts; used pipe bombs, C-4, grenades, other explosives, and automatic weapons; participated in a robbery resulting in a hostage situation; and attempted the murder of police officers,” according to federal prosecutors.
Court records and wiretap transcripts from 2011 to 2015 provide a gripping tale of Robertson’s life, and that of one student, Jonathan Paul Jimenez, who Robertson allegedly instructed to file false tax returns to obtain a tax refund to pay for travel to Mauritania, Northwest Africa, for study and violent jihadist training.

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Robertson's Orlando-based Fundamental Islamic Knowledge Seminary is not taking students while he fights charges against him. (Screengrab)

The tax fraud case led to the prosecution of Jimenez, who reportedly knew Robertson for 11 years and, by his own admission, trained with the imam for a year in preparation for his travel to Mauritania, where he would study and learn to kill U.S. military personnel.
Robertson denies sending Jimenez overseas "to commit violent jihad,” but prosecutors produced several wiretapped conversations from 2011 that they say prove Robertson trained Jimenez “in killing, suicide bombing, and identifying and murdering United States military personnel.”
According to court records:
•      Jimenez stated he and Robertson discussed suicide bombings. Robertson told Jimenez if one could "go to a place where there’s seven top generals, it would be permissible to use a suicide bomb to kill them.”
•      Jimenez said Robertson wanted him to “fight to kill” and taught him it is obligatory to kill military officers, specifically generals, because they “can lead an army.” He said Robertson had instructed him on how to kill people “in a good manner” and how to “do it with kindness.”
•      Jimenez said he was “getting ready for that grave, baby,” and Robertson was preparing to make him a “killer” after he completed the religious aspects of his training.
FBI investigators said Robertson’s computers held documents from the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center, such as “How to think like a terrorist” and the “Militant Ideology Atlas,” American military reports on interrogation, polygraphs, psychological operations; survival kits issued to Army aviators and a diagram of names connected to Global jihad.
Jimenez pleaded guilty August 28, 2012, to making a false statement to a federal agency in a matter involving international terrorism and conspiring to defraud the IRS, and was sentenced April 18, 2013, to 10 years in federal prison.
Bill Warner, a private investigator in Sarasota, Fla., and anti-Mulsim extremist activist, has been tracking Robertson since 2009. He claims that in addition to the most recent crimes, Robertson has “links to Al Qaeda going back to at least 1993 in New York City” and also previously was associated with Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called “Blind Sheik” whose Muslim extremist group is blamed for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Rahman, convicted of seditious conspiracy with nine others, is serving a life sentence at the Butner Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina.
In early 1991, Robertson joined with other former Muslim security guards to form a robbery gang they called the ‘Forty Thieves’ with Robertson as the leader known as "Ali Baba." They robbed more than 10 banks, private homes and post offices at gun point, shot three police officers, and attacked one cop after he was injured by a homemade pipe bomb, Warner said.
Government records confirm Warner’s allegations and add that Robertson personally gave more than $300,000 of stolen funds to mosques he attended. After he was arrested in 1991, Robertson cut a deal with prosecutors, and served just four years in prison while his cronies remain behind bars to this day.
Robertson faced more jail time after he was arrested in August, 2011, for illegally possessing a firearm and was sent to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility, in Seminole County, Fla., where he is still being held.
Just after pleading guilty to the firearms conviction in Jan. 2012, federal authorities charged him in March, 2012, with conspiring to defraud the IRS.
Robertson, who said he’s lived in New York, Florida, California, Japan, Mauritania in Africa and Egypt, claims he is a professor who has lectured at universities around the world, including American universities.
Videos of his lectures show him preaching against gays, “devil worshipers,” non-Muslims and such American pop culture icons as cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, who he says is “gay.”
Robertson claims to have served in the elite counter-terrorism unit Joint Special Operations Command before leaving the military as a conscientious objector. A spokeswoman for the National Archives confirmed his service from May 16, 1986 to May 1994, in the U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company as a field radio operator, but records indicate he was released from active duty in March 1990, discharged in the rank of corporal. Records show he was trained in radio telegraph, scuba diving, marksmanship, parachuting, terrorism counteraction, surveillance, infantry patrolling and finance.
While Robertson is jailed in Orlando, classes at his Fundamental Islamic Knowledge Seminary are on hold, but through friends and one of his wives, he continues to publish pleas for help.
On Wednesday, a wife named Umm Taubah, thanked supporters, but announced their fundraising efforts were hurt when, on March 24, their GOFundMe account was taken down because “administrators claimed we violated the rules by soliciting funds for a suspected terrorist.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office and attorneys for Robertson were contacted for comment, but none would comment.

Emerging details of possible Iranian nuclear deal draw bipartisan ire

Emerging details of a possible nuclear deal with Iran have drawn sharp criticism from congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who say the U.S. and its international partners may be ceding too much as a key deadline nears.
If reports are true, "then we are not inching closer to Iran’s negotiating position, but leaping toward it with both feet,” charged Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a vocal critic of the direction of the talks.
“My fear is that we are no longer guided by the principle that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal,’ but instead we are negotiating ‘any deal for a deal’s sake.’”
The deal is not done, but sources tell FoxNews.com negotiations seem to be reaching a climax at the P5+1 talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. Lawmakers, meanwhile, appear to be getting more restive about whether the demands on Iran will be tough enough.
Details of the emerging deal include a possible trade-off which would allow Iran to run several hundred centrifuges in a once-top secret, fortified bunker site at Fordo, in exchange for limits on enrichment and nuclear research and development at other sites -- in particular, Iran's main facility at Natanz.
The terms of the agreement have not been confirmed and were shared with The Associated Press by officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
According to the AP report, no centrifuges at Fordo would be used to enrich uranium, but would be fed elements like zinc, xenon and germanium for separating out isotopes for medicine, industry or science.
Initially, the P5+1 partners, which include the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, China and Germany, had wanted all centrifuges stripped away from the Fordo facility. However, under this reported deal, Iranian scientists would be prohibited from working on any nuclear research or development program there, and the number of centrifuges allowed would not be enough to produce the amount of uranium it takes to make a bomb within a year anyway, according to the officials.
The site also would be subject to international inspections.
But that did not seem to boost the confidence of detractors. In a symbolic statement underscoring the concerns of many lawmakers, the Senate also voted unanimously late Thursday for a non-binding Iran amendment -- to an unrelated budget measure. The amendment endorses the principles of separate legislation that would re-impose waived sanctions and level new ones on Iran if President Obama "cannot make a determination and certify that Iran is complying" with an interim agreement or any new one that is established in current talks.
Last Friday, 367 House lawmakers, including 129 Democrats, also wrote to Obama warning that a deal must “foreclose any pathway to a bomb” before they’ll support legislation lifting sanctions on Tehran. The letter was spearheaded by Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
It is not clear whether the recent details emerging from the talks would satisfy that.
But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also spoke out, calling them “disturbing.”   
“[The Iranians] have been cheating for the last 20 years, this facility [Fordo] was found out in 2009. At the end of the day it is a hardened site. To allow enrichment here would be, I think, very irresponsible,” he said in an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News' “On the Record” on Thursday.  
“It would be delusional for any P5+1 agreement to allow [Iran] to enrich in a fortified facility,” Graham added. “The Arabs are not going to accept such a deal, and they’ll get a bomb of their own, then you’re on the road to Armageddon.”
Other observers of the agreement say the critics are rushing unnecessarily to judgment.
“We don’t know whether the reports are true – there’s been a lot of things leaked that may be true or may be a misunderstanding,” said Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council, who spoke with FoxNews.com from the talks in Lausanne. “But if the reports are correct and there will be centrifuges with no uranium in it -- they can’t produce a bomb -- it’s really put the emphasis on the unreasonableness of the [critics'] objections.”
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, agreed. “I think Senator Graham and Senator Menendez need to take a step back and put this development in a broader context. The key to Fordo is that we do not want this to be a facility with industrial-scale uranium enrichment and this report suggests they are moving in that direction.”
The deal reportedly would scale back the centrifuges and uranium enrichment at Natanz and impose other restrictions on nuclear-related research and development. All of the options on the table right now are designed keep an Iranian “breakout” of a weapon at least one year away for the life of the deal, which would run for 10 years.
This is not enough, and smacks of too much compromise for too little in return, said Menendez. “An undue amount of trust and faith is being placed in a negotiating partner that has spent decades deceiving the international community.”  
That is the reason why David Albright, of Washington’s Institute for Security and International Security, is concerned about Fordo. The deal would allow the Iranians to keep their technology intact and if they please, could be repurposed to enrich uranium.
"It keeps the infrastructure in place and keeps a leg up, if they want to restart [uranium] enrichment operations," he said.
The White House said Friday that it was confident a “political agreement” will be made by the March 31 deadline, which would make space to negotiate the more complicated technical details ahead of the harder June 30 deadline.
“Important progress has been made but this president is not going to stop short,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. However, he “is not willing to accept an agreement that does not accomplish our goals which is to cut off every pathway Iran has to acquiring a nuclear weapon and secure their commitment to cooperating with a set of intrusive inspections to prove they are complying with the agreement.”

Senator’s questions over Clinton Foundation Nigerian donor spark GOP infighting

A GOP senator's questions over whether a foreign donor swayed Hillary Clinton's decisions while secretary of state have triggered a nasty -- and rather unusual -- dispute with a fellow Republican.
Last week, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., raised new conflict-of-interest concerns for Clinton regarding donations to her family's foundation, questioning whether Nigerian businessman and philanthropist Gilbert Chagoury played any role in her initial opposition to designating a major terror group.
Chagoury, a Nigerian citizen of Lebanese descent, has donated millions to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and has long ties to the family. The Louisiana senator wants to know if that history had anything to do with Clinton's reluctance to designate Boko Haram a terror group while secretary of state.
"Chagoury is a huge donor to the Clinton Foundation," Vitter told FoxNews.com. "He clearly had an interest in keeping Nigeria looking better than it was. [The designation] would have absolutely hurt his bottom line.
"It is not a difficult set of dots to connect."
Vitter sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last week raising these questions, saying: "We need to know if Mr. Chagoury had any influence in the decision not to designate Boko Haram an FTO, or had any other influence with Sec. Clinton's foreign policy decisions."
Chagoury did not respond to a request for comment.
But a veteran Republican media strategist in Washington, Mark Corallo, did. He's calling Vitter's "intimation" that Chagoury tried to delay the Boko Haram designation "ludicrous and laughable."
"I understand David Vitter's desire to score political points against Hillary Clinton. I was in the Clinton opposition business long before anyone had heard of Senator Vitter. And by all means it should be open season on Hillary," Corallo said in a lengthy statement. "But we should be careful to base our political attacks on facts, not innuendo dressed up as a Congressional inquiry. We shouldn't treat everyone who ever associated with the Clinton's as collateral damage."
Corallo, who served as Attorney General John Ashcroft's spokesman in the Bush Justice Department from 2002-2005, counts Chagoury as a close friend. He told FoxNews.com he represents Chagoury "pro bono," calling him "family."
In his statement, he added: "His love for America and his hatred of Islamic terrorists is intense and public."
At this point, Vitter is not offering proof that Chagoury, a Maronite Catholic, had advocated against the Boko Haram designation -- or even alleging it. But he raised the question -- the kinds of questions Clinton increasingly faces about her family foundation's donations as she gears up for a likely White House bid.
"I think broadly speaking, there are real substantive, legitimate questions," Vitter said, adding that he has "not come to this lately or lightly," noting he first raised the issue when Clinton was first nominated to lead the State Department in 2009.
Vitter also drew a connection between the two major controversies looming over Clinton's expected presidential bid: over Clinton Foundation donors, and her use of personal email while secretary of state. Vitter is asking whether, because of her personal email use, messages dealing with the Boko Haram designation are missing.
Vitter's letter asked the State Department for all documents regarding Clinton's decision not to support a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation for the Nigeria-based Boko Haram.
Kerry designated Boko Haram an FTO when he became secretary in 2013. By then, its ties to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups were clearly established. Since that time, the Islamic militant group -- which has been responsible for numerous civilian attacks, rapes and kidnappings in Nigeria, including of over 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 -- has sworn fealty to the Islamic State.
Whether Chagoury indeed had any interest in staving off the terror designation is unknown.
Chagoury is listed as giving between $1 million and $5 million on Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. In 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chagoury and his family have been longtime supporters of President Bill Clinton and he has donated funds to his campaigns, as well as Mrs. Clinton's unsuccessful presidential bid in 2008.
His bio is long: Chagoury is a hugely wealthy philanthropist giving to humanitarian, educational and Christian-Catholic causes. An ambassador of St. Lucia to the Holy See, he has been received "warmly" by Pope Francis "several times," said Corallo, and has donated millions to Catholic charities. According to Corallo, he was friends with Ronald Reagan and along with family members has given generously to Republican candidates, including the Republican Party and the George W. Bush Presidential Library, over the years. His friendship with Bill Clinton, said Corallo, was sparked by their shared interest in Africa.
Chagoury, who has a residence in Los Angeles, is not without controversy, however. He made his fortune building The Chagoury Group, described as an industrial conglomerate with interests in construction, real estate, property development, IT communications, finance and hotels. Both the Wall Street Journal and Harper's Magazine reported in 2008 that Chagoury has a "controversial past," having supported and advised de facto president Sani Abacha, who seized power in Nigeria in a 1993 military coup. His reign was marked by human rights abuses and corruption. After the general died in 1998, Chagoury paid $300,000 to the new Nigerian government in exchange for immunity in a broader investigation of billions of dollars improperly taken out of the country during Abacha's tenure.
"[Chagoury] was the gatekeeper to Abacha's presidency," Philippe Vasset, editor of Africa Energy Intelligence, told PBS Frontline in 2010.
Deals he has been involved with have been the target of bribery-related investigations over the years, but he "hasn't been accused of wrongdoing" in any of them, according to the Journal.
Requests for comment by FoxNews.com to Clinton's staff were not returned. When reached for comment, a spokesperson at the State Department told FoxNews.com they had received Vitter's letter and were reviewing it.
Peter Pham, an Africa expert at the Atlantic Council, agreed that the State Department was ambivalent about designating Boko Haram until 2012, but said the hesitancy was widespread throughout much of the foreign policy and intelligence community at the time.
"There was tremendous pushback," Pham told FoxNews.com, recalling his own advocacy for the FTO on Capitol Hill as early as 2011. He noted, too, that the Nigerian government was "in denial," and felt the designation would "impair foreign investment" and other assistance to the county. The government also worried the designation would give Boko Haram additional clout.
After the group kidnapped the schoolgirls in 2014, critics began to wonder whether the Clinton State Department had erred by not designating the group earlier.
Pham said he would "caution against presuming that because someone is a Nigerian they are necessarily nefarious" -- referring to the questions revolving around Chagoury.
However, he acknowledged that for Clinton, having these foreign donors "is a complicated thing ... it does raise issues."
Corallo said Chagoury has had no contact with Hillary Clinton "for years" and that even if Vitter gets new emails, "he'll find no emails or correspondence of any kind from Ambassador Chagoury with Secretary Clinton or the Department of State."
In 2008, Clinton signed an agreement that the foundation would not take money from foreign governments while she was secretary of state. A Washington Post report in February, however, indicated donations kept coming in from several governments because of an exemption for countries that were already donating at the time the agreement was made. At the time, foundation officials said the money went to the organization's charitable works, including earthquake relief in Haiti.

US preparing to boost aid to Saudi-led coalition to fight Houthi rebels, report says

The U.S. is reportedly preparing to boost its aid to Saudi Arabia in its air assault against rebel forces in Yemen.
The Wall Street Journal, citing military officials, reports the U.S. is going to provide the Saudis with more intel, bombs and aerial refueling missions for planes that are carrying out airstrikes in the embattled Arab nation.
The development comes after the Saudi Arabia-led coalition seized full control of Yemeni airspace after two days of airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels, who have taken control of Yemen’s capital and government, a Saudi Defense Ministry official told the paper.
The campaign has raised fears that Yemen’s crisis could escalate into a regional battle putting Sunni countries against Shiite Iran and the Shiite linked Houthis.
Top Sunni clerics have voiced their support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen Friday, while top Iranian leaders including President Hasan Rouhani have already condemned the intervention.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon condemned the “Saudi-American attack,” saying “it is the right of Yemen’s people, who are brave and resilient, to fight and resist, and they will succeed.
U.S. officials told the paper that Saudi officials have requested air tankers to refuel planes and for more American-made bombs to continue with the strikes. The U.S. is preparing to help the Saudis once the requests are approved in Washington.
Under the plan, the U.S. would step up its role in a new military coordination center to aid the Saudi Arabia-led campaign.
Saudi Arabia joined other Gulf nations and allies in a military campaign Thursday against the Iran-backed Houths, who have completely overrun most of Yemen in the last seven months.
Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri said in a press conference that Saudi Arabia has gained complete control of Yemeni airspace after knocking out Houthi air defense and fighter jets.
Asiri said there were no plans to add ground troops to the campaign, but said that they could be deployed if necessary. The Saudis also said they were coordinating with forces in Yemen that support President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is backed by Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
The Saudis carried out the first of its airstrikes Thursday and were later joined by its ally the United Arab Emirates, Asiri said. Other coalition members include Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Egypt.
Friday’s strikes by Saudi Arabian Apache helicopters hit Houthi targets in the northern part of the country. Warplanes also assaulted the Al Anad air base as they took down other Houthi fighter jets and air defenses, Asiri said.
Violence in Yemen continues to escalate as the Houthis continue to advance throughout the nation. The rebels took the Sanaa in September forcing Hadi to flee. The Houthis continued to spread this week taking over Al Anad and threatened Aden. Hadi fled to Oman by boat and later to Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian state media reported Hadi will take part in an Arab League summit Saturday as an official delegate for Yemen. U.A.E.’s state news agency reported that Arab foreign ministers agreed to draft a resolution to create a pan-Arab military force.
U.S. officials fear the continued violence will allow militant groups to fill the security vacuum. Al Qaeda terrorist branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, calls Yemen its home and is believed to be one of the most dangerous groups in the branch.
U.S. Special Forces were cooperating with Hadi to carry out drone strikes against the AQAP from Al Anad. However, the escalating violence forced the U.S. to pull out.

Cell Phone Cartoon

Republicans see best shot yet at approving ObamaCare repeal as budget plan advances

Republicans may be divided over the particulars of dueling budget plans, but there is at least one area of agreement among GOP lawmakers: the desire to repeal ObamaCare.
And this year's budget legislation could give them the best chance yet to send repeal legislation to President Obama's desk.
The party -- which for the first time in eight years controls both the House and Senate -- is using the budget process to inch closer toward a repeal of the controversial health care law, even as Obama hailed it a success on its five-year anniversary this week.
The House on Wednesday night narrowly passed its version of a budget blueprint after Republican leaders agreed to tack on extra defense spending over the protest of conservative members who opposed busting the caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act. The Senate, meanwhile, is on track to approve its plan by the end of week following a marathon voting session that starts Thursday.
Leaders in both chambers have set a mid-April goal of resolving differences between the two approaches.
Why does this matter for ObamaCare?
Like many pieces of legislation before it, the proposal calls for undoing the health care law. What's significant this time is that it's contained in a budget resolution.
While the resolution is not legally binding, it gives Senate leaders a procedural tool by which subsequent legislation -- so long as it impacts spending or revenue -- can pass the chamber on a simple-majority vote, as opposed to the usual 60-vote threshold.
Known as budget "reconciliation," the tool is critical to GOP hopes of shelving ObamaCare, since Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's caucus of 54 is six votes short of filibuster-proof. (The budget itself is also subject to special rules and cannot be filibustered.)
Five years after the president signed it into law, polls show that ObamaCare -- also known as the Affordable Care Act -- remains unpopular, with 42 percent of the public approving of it compared with 53 percent who disapprove, according to the Real Clear Politics average.
The fact Obama likely would veto a rollback of his signature legislative achievement isn't stopping Republicans from fulfilling what they describe as a campaign promise.
"This new class, we were elected on ObamaCare, to repeal and replace it," Sen. Cory Gardner, a freshman Republican from Colorado, told Fox News' Neil Cavuto on "Your World" earlier this week. "I think the Republicans not only will have a plan, but something the president will accept, because it's something that we have to do, and that's important."
Democrats nevertheless continue to trumpet individual parts of the overhaul, citing benefits like the elimination of preexisting conditions as grounds for denial of coverage and the expansion of Medicaid to cover more Americans. For his part, Obama acknowledges there may be room for improvement, but says Republicans should work with Democrats to address problems rather than aim for a wholesale repeal.
"Every public health policy has some tradeoffs, especially when it affects one-sixth of the American economy and applies to the very personal needs of every individual American," the president told an audience Wednesday. "We also know beyond a shred of the doubt the policy has worked. Coverage is up, cost growth is at a historic low, deficits have been slashed, lives have been saved. So if anybody wants to join us in the spirit of people putting aside differences and come here today and make the law work better, come on board."
But even if Obama were to veto their efforts, Republicans -- who have voted more than 60 times to repeal or undermine the law -- are champing at the bit to finally send legislation to his desk.
"By passing a balanced budget that's about the future, we can leave ObamaCare's higher costs and broken promises where they belong -- in the past," McConnell said Monday.
Details of a possible GOP replacement for ObamaCare remain elusive for the time being. There is no shortage of Republican-sponsored health-care bills percolating on the Hill but it isn't clear if the party will unite around one comprehensive magic bullet.
Indeed, given the likelihood of a veto many ObamaCare critics say the best shot they'll have at undermining the law could be in responding to a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling in King v. Burwell. In the event the high court rules against the administration, some 7.5 million Americans enrolled in federally run health-care exchanges could lose their subsidies as a result, according to a February estimate by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"I look forward to that opportunity," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a freshman Republican from Louisiana who is also a medical doctor. "If it arises, we shall be ready."

Watchdog: DEA agents attended cartel-funded 'sex parties'

In another major embarrassment for federal law enforcement, a Justice Department watchdog report alleges several Drug Enforcement Administration agents attended "sex parties" with prostitutes paid for by local drug cartels.
The alleged parties took place in an unnamed "host country," which reportedly was Colombia, over a period of several years. According to the Justice Department inspector general report, the parties were even held in agents' U.S. government-leased quarters.
Further, agents received "money, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members," according to the report, which explored sexual misconduct allegations and how they are handled at the DEA; FBI; Bureau of  Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF); and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).
The IG report found such allegations often went unreported or underreported, or were not pursued properly.
The findings were immediately met Thursday with outrage on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers for years have pressured agencies to get tough on misconduct from within -- most notably, following the Secret Service prostitution scandal in 2012, also in Colombia.
"Once again, some federal law enforcement agents are acting like they belong in a college frat house rather than at a taxpayer-funded law enforcement agency tasked with interdicting illegal drugs," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement. "It's extremely troubling that federal drug agents lacked the common sense to know that engaging with prostitutes hired by drug cartels was a bad idea."
Extensive interviews with DEA and host country officials from 2009-2010 revealed allegations against 10 agents, including a regional director. Seven admitted to attending the parties with the prostitutes, which allegedly were arranged by a police officer in the host country and took place between 2005 and 2008. A Washington Post story quoted a law enforcement source as confirming the incidents happened in Cartagena, Colombia, the scene of the 2012 sex scandal.
The DOJ inspector general said it initiated the report "in the wake" of that Secret Service scandal, in which 13 agents on a presidential detail were snagged hiring prostitutes and engaging in drunken revelry the night before President Obama arrived for the Summit of the Americas. A dozen U.S. military personnel were also punished for their involvement.

'It's extremely troubling that federal drug agents lacked the common sense to know that engaging with prostitutes hired by drug cartels was a bad idea.'- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

In the DEA case, investigators said that the DEA had imposed suspensions on the men ranging from two to 10 days. The DEA inspector told the DOJ IG investigators that "prostitution is considered a part of the local culture and is tolerated in certain areas called 'tolerance zones,'" and that it is common for prostitutes to be "present at business meetings involving cartel members and foreign officers" -- and that all of this "affects the way in which federal law enforcement employees conduct themselves in this particular country."
Reached for comment, a DEA representative referred FoxNews.com to the agency's official response in the report. That response said the investigation of misconduct allegations is "the primary mission" of its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). DEA did a "second review" of all the cases the IG reviewed to see if the OPR did its job and the DEA determined that they were "investigated properly through DEA's disciplinary process for related misconduct."
Separately, a spokesman with the Department of Justice said the DOJ takes the issues in the report "seriously" and "is taking steps to implement policies and procedures to help prevent them from happening in the future." He added: "The Department is already working with the law enforcement components to ensure a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment and misconduct is enforced and that incidents are properly reported."
Members of Congress were quick to weigh in, saying this was more than a matter of cultural differences, but a danger to Americans.
"Let there be no mistake, this is a national security threat," said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who called for the immediate firing of the agents involved. "The gross misconduct of DEA agents follows a disturbing pattern of risky and improper behavior afflicting Homeland Security and the Department of Justice."
The oversight committee already has scheduled a hearing on the findings, for April 14.
The report detailed other cases as well. This includes that of an ATF director who initiated "sexual play" with multiple anonymous partners in a hotel room; a U.S. marshal who admitted to having sexual relations with prostitutes in Thailand; and numerous allegations of sexual harassment throughout the agency.

School named after war hero forces child to shave off military-style haircut

Adam Stinnett looks up to his older stepbrother – a soldier in the U.S. Army. So when it came time to get a haircut, the seven-year-old told his mother he wanted a basic military-style cut. And that’s exactly what he got – high and tight – just like his stepbrother.
Adam got his haircut on March 8. On March 9, his mother got a letter from the principal of Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee.
It seems they were not all that thrilled with the second grader’s new hairdo. The principal told Amy Stinnett that her son’s haircut was distracting – and needed to be fixed.

The principal told Amy Stinnett that her son’s haircut was distracting – and needed to be fixed

Amy refused to comply.
The following day, she was summoned to the principal’s office where she was given an ultimatum.
“We were told that we had to either cut his hair or he could not return to school,” she said.
Amy tried to explain to the principal that her son’s haircut was meant to emulate his older brother. But her explanation was dismissed and the principal demanded that the boy’s hair be “in compliance with our rules.”
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“I have the utmost respect for the military and its members,” the principal wrote in an email to Amy. “However, we are not a military school and the boy’s haircut is against our rules.”
She tried to reason with the principal – but it was a lost cause. So Amy complied with the school’s demands.
“In order to fix the high and tight, I had to shave his head – like he has no hair,” she told me.
Apparently the principal at Bobby Ray Elementary School doesn’t seem to think a bald-headed second grader is going to cause a distraction.
But Amy also did something else – she contacted the Southern Standard newspaper. And as it turned out – the pen really is mightier than the clippers.
“Military hair cut deemed distracting by Bobby Ray Elementary” was the headline – and boy did it create some controversy around McMinnville.
“They shamed my son and they shamed a lot of military people – that’s how I feel about it,” Amy said. She also would like the school to apologize to her son.
The Warren County School District responded to the newspaper story with a four-paragraph statement telling folks they could not comment on the incident or the investigation – on the advice of their attorneys.
“This is an internal school matter and the administration of the school district has been advised to address it as such from this point forward,” the statement read.
While the district does not have a policy about hair styles, individual schools are given authority to make such decisions.
“Neither Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary, nor any school in Warren County School District, prohibits military haircuts,” the statement declares.
Well, someone at the district office might want to clue in the principal -- because according to her email – military style haircuts are clearly against the rules.
It’s a pretty sad state of affairs in McMinnville – especially when you take into account that Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School is named after a local war hero.
Navy Corpsman David Robert “Bobby” Ray was killed in action during the Vietnam War. His final act of heroism was to use his body to shield a Marine from a grenade. The Marine survived. Ray did not. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
“We are extremely proud that Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary was named in honor of a true American hero,” the school district stated.
And yet, they chose to shame a seven-year-old boy who wanted to look like a soldier. That school district doesn’t know the first thing about honor.

House panel asks White House for documents related to Bergdahl swap

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked the Obama administration Thursday to turn over all reports and documents, including intelligence information, related to last year's exchange of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five members of the Taliban.
"It is unclear from the information that has been provided to the Committee and from publicly available reports why the decision was made to exchange Sgt. Bergdahl for the five Taliban members," said the letter, which was addressed to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.
On Wednesday, Bergdahl was charged by the military with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He was released from Taliban captivity last May after being held as a prisoner of war for five years. In the wake of Bergdahl's release and return to the U.S., fellow soldiers accused him of deliberately walking away from his Afghanistan post and putting the lives of soldiers who sought to find him at risk.
News of the charges against Bergdahl has prompted heavy criticism of the administration in Congress, where lawmakers slammed the White House for transferring the five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the Gulf state of Qatar without prior consultation.
"Today's announcement is the exclamation point on the bad deal the Obama administration cut to free five terrorist killers in its rush to empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay," Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the charges were sure to "raise doubts in the mind of the average American" about the initial trade for Bergdahl.
Fox News reported Wednesday that at least three of the five have attempted to reconnect with their former comrades since their arrival in Qatar. The men are being monitored by the Qatari government and U.S. intelligence agencies. But the initial terms of the swap deal only extend for one year, meaning they could be free to return to Afghanistan or elsewhere later this spring. It is not clear whether the U.S. will seek to extend the agreement.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki defended the Bergdahl deal in an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly Wednesday evening.
"Was it worth it? Absolutely," Psaki said. "We have a commitment to our men and women serving in the military, defending our national security every day, that we're going to do everything to bring them home if we can, and that's what we did in this case."

Cruz & Dem. Cartoon

'Was it worth it? Absolutely': Obama administration official defends Bergdahl trade despite charges

The Obama administration's incoming communications director said Wednesday the decision to trade Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders last year was the right move, hours after he was charged with desertion.
"Was it worth it? Absolutely," Jen Psaki told Megyn Kelly on "The Kelly File." "We have a commitment to our men and women serving in the military, defending our national security every day, that we're going to do everything to bring them home if we can, and that's what we did in this case."
Psaki's comments were the first from an administration official since the charges were announced earlier in the day.
Bergdahl, who was released from Taliban captivity last May after being a prisoner of war for five years, was charged with misbehavior before the enemy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was also charged with desertion, which carries a maximum of five years.
The case now goes to an Article 32 hearing to be held at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where Bergdahl has been performing administrative duties as he awaits the conclusion of the case. That proceeding is similar to a grand jury. From there, it could be referred to a court-martial and go to trial.

More on this...

• Army: Bergdahl faces maximum punishment of life behind bars

• Bergdahl: From 'honor and distinction' to deserter

• Army lays out charges against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

• Army Sgt. Bergdahl to be charged with desertion

• US soldier held captive by Taliban in Afghanistan for nearly five years freed

A date for that hearing has not yet been announced.
Psaki, who is currently a State Department spokeswoman but who is slated to move to the White House next week, wouldn't comment on the merit of the charges against Bergdahl, saying she "won't prejudge those steps" that the Army will be undertaking.
The charges against Bergdahl, 28, come 10 months after his May 2014 release, which initially was a joyous occasion, with his parents joining President Obama in celebrating the news in the Rose Garden. Bob Bergdahl, who had studied Islam during his son's captivity, appeared with a full beard and read a Muslim prayer, while Bergdahl's mother Jani embraced the president.
But that euphoria quickly gave way to controversy in Washington, as Bergdahl was accused of walking away from his post and putting his fellow soldiers in danger. The trade of hardened Taliban fighters for his freedom raised deep concerns on Capitol Hill that the administration struck an unbalanced and possibly illegal deal.
With the newly announced charges, Bergdahl could also face a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank and forfeiture of all his pay if convicted. He is not in pretial confinement at Fort Sam Houston, a spokesman for U.S. Army Forces Command said.
The announcement of the charges marks a sharp turnaround for the administration's narrative of Bergdahl's service and release. After the swap last year, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Bergdahl served with "honor and distinction."
But as Bergdahl faced criticism from fellow servicemembers for his actions, the administration faced heated complaints from Congress over the Taliban trade itself. "This fundamental shift in U.S. policy signals to terrorists around the world a greater incentive to take U.S. hostages," said former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., then the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Wednesday's announcement only fueled those concerns.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the Armed Services Committee, was asked by reporters Wednesday whether the charges raised doubts about the initial trade of Bergdahl for the Taliban members.
"I would think that it would raise doubts in the mind of the average American if those doubts weren't raised already," Wicker said.
"This proves once again that the president's political motivations for closing Guantanamo Bay are causing him to make reckless decisions and will put more American lives at risk," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Wednesday in a statement.
Gen. Mark Milley, head of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, has been reviewing the massive case files and had a broad range of legal options, including various degrees of desertion charges. A major consideration was whether military officials would be able to prove that Bergdahl had no intention of returning to his unit.
Bergdahl disappeared from his base in the eastern Afghanistan province of Paktika on June 30, 2009. A private first class at the time, he had three days earlier emailed his parents expressing disillusionment with the war.

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President Obama stands with Bob Bergdahl (R) and Jami Bergdahl (L) as he delivers a statement about the release of their son, prisoner of war U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington May 31, 2014. (Reuters)

Bergdahl left a note in his tent that said he was leaving to start a new life and intended to renounce his citizenship, Fox News reported last year.
For the next five years, Bergdahl is believed to have been held by the Taliban and Pakistan's infamous Haqqani network. In one of several hostage videos released during his captivity, he said he was captured when he fell behind a patrol, but fellow soldiers, outraged after the trade was made with the Taliban, accused him of deserting. Some asserted that American servicemembers' lives were put at risk in the hunt for Bergdahl.
Bergdahl was freed on May 31, 2014, after the White House agreed to trade five high-value Taliban operatives held at Guantanamo Bay.
The trade was branded as illegal by lawmakers, who said they weren’t advised beforehand, It was also blasted by critics who said it violated America’s longstanding tradition of not negotiating with terrorists. There were also concerns – which would prove well-founded – that the Taliban members would return to the fight against the West.
Of the five -- Mohammad Fazl, the former Taliban army chief of staff; Khairullah Khairkhwa, a Taliban intelligence official; Abdul Haq Wasiq, a former Taliban government official; and Norullah Noori and Mohammad Nabi Omari -- at least three have attempted to reconnect with their old comrades, a source told Fox News.
Bergdhal was promoted to sergeant while in captivity, and had accrued more than $200,000 in back pay by the time he was freed.

GOP-controlled House approves balanced budget plan

  

WASHINGTON –  Normally quarrelsome House Republicans came together Wednesday night and passed a boldly conservative budget that relies on nearly $5 trillion in cuts to eliminate deficits over the next decade, calls for repealing the health care law and envisions transformations of the tax code and Medicare.
Final passage, 228-199, came shortly after Republicans bumped up recommended defense spending to levels proposed by President Barack Obama.
Much of the budget's savings would come from Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, programs that aid the low-income, although details were sketchy.
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the House Budget Committee, called the plan a "balanced budget for a stronger America" -- and one that would "get this economy rolling again."
Democrats rebutted that the GOP numbers didn't add up and called their policies wrong-headed.
"People who are running in place today are not going to be moving forward under the Republican budget, they're going to be falling back," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
The Republican-controlled Senate is likely to approve its version of a budget by week's end.
The plans themselves are non-binding and do not require a presidential signature. Instead, once the House and Senate agree on a common approach, lawmakers will have to draft legislation to carry out the program that Republicans have vowed to follow in the wake of campaign victories last fall that gave them control of both houses of Congress.
Still, House passage of a budget marked a significant victory for Speaker John Boehner and the GOP leadership, which have struggled mightily to overcome differences within a fractious rank and file.
An equally notable second triumph appeared on the horizon. Legislation to stabilize the system of payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients is expected to clear the House Thursday, and Obama's declaration of support enhanced its chances in the Senate.
It includes a requirement for upper-income Medicare beneficiaries to pay more for their coverage, a provision Republicans hailed as a triumph in their drive to curtail the growth of benefit programs.
There was nothing bipartisan about the budget debate, though. Republicans supported it, 228-17, while all 182 Democrats who voted were opposed.
The House plan calls for $5.4 trillion in deficit reduction over a decade, including about $2 trillion from repeal of the law known as Obamacare. Nearly $1 trillion would be saved from from Medicaid and CHIP, health care programs for the low-income, and $1 billion from other unspecified benefit programs. Another $500 billion would come from general government programs that already have been squeezed in recent years by deficit-reduction agreements between Congress and the White House.
The budget outline itself provides few if any details of the cuts envisioned, although once they appear in legislation they are highly likely to spark a veto showdown with Obama.
The president has also vowed to defend the health care law that stands as his signature domestic achievement. The House has already voted more than 60 times to repeal it in part or whole, but for the first time since the law passed, House members have a willing partner in the Senate.
The prospect of sending Obama legislation to repeal the health care law contributed to the unusual degree of unity among House conservatives. Without a budget in place, they noted, the repeal measure would not have special protection against a Senate filibuster -- and would not reach the White House.
As they have in recent years, House Republicans call for the transformation of Medicare into a voucher-like program. Senate Republicans, already worried about defending their majority in 2016, omitted that from their plan.
Both the House and Senate plans call for an overhaul of the tax code.
Defense spending caused a few anxious moments for Boehner and the leadership as the budget moved through the House Budget Committee and across the floor.
As drafted by the panel, it called for $610 billion for the Pentagon for the coming budget year. Of that, $87 billion would come from an account that supports overseas military operations, and $21.5 billion would be dependent on offsetting spending cuts elsewhere.
On a vote of 219-208, Republicans raised the overall level to $612 billion, none of it contingent on offsetting savings.
Obama's budget called for $612 billion in defense spending. Republicans are eager to exceed his recommendation, and may decide to raise their level further in House-Senate compromise talks.
House Republicans said their budget would yield a surplus of $13 billion in 2024 and $33 billion in 2025.
Democrats scoffed at the claim. They pointed out such an outcome would rely in part on allowing $900 billion in popular tax breaks to expire as scheduled, and also assumed that tax hikes would be retained from the health care law that Republicans want to repeal.
By contrast, Obama's budget would fail to eliminate deficits, despite the presence of nearly $2 trillion in higher taxes.
In a years-old ritual, much of the day was consumed by debate and rejection of alternatives. House Democrats, progressives and the Congressional Black Caucus all advanced no-balance budgets that called for more domestic spending and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. The Democratic alternative drew more votes than the others, but failed 264-160.
The conservative Republican Study Committee proposed far deeper spending cuts than the Budget Committee recommended, a delay in Medicare eligibility to age 67 for younger workers, and a balanced budget in six years. Republicans voted for it 132-112, but all 182 Democrats opposed it, and it went down to defeat.

Business dealings of Hillary Clinton's brother raise new questions

The latest baggage threatening to dog Hillary Clinton’s expected bid for the White House comes in the form of her brother, who allegedly got help from the Department of Homeland Security in smoothing a business deal.
The department’s inspector general found that Tony Rodham was given special treatment by DHS’ No. 2 in securing visas for foreigners connected to a deal.
Rodham was CEO of an electric car company owned by another longtime Clinton pal, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, when he got help from DHS official Alejandro Mayorkas securing the visas for investors in the firm. It is not clear that Clinton played any role. But the determination could, at least, fuel new questions about what was contained in the thousands of emails sent and received on Clinton's private server while she was secretary of state -- many of which she says were deleted.

"What I would say going forward to Hillary is tell your brother to bug out and to find other ways to make a living other than appearing to trade off your name.”- Doug Schoen, Democratic political strategist

This isn't the first time Rodham's past has stirred potential problems for his sister. His business dealings were called into question last month, when the Washington Post reported that a mining company whose board he sits on got a coveted gold mining deal from the government of Haiti after the Clintons' charitable foundation performed relief work there.
One Democratic strategist said Rodham’s wheeling and dealing could become a problem for Clinton if and when she officially mounts another campaign for the White House.
“What I would say going forward to Hillary is tell your brother to bug out and to find other ways to make a living other than appearing to trade off your name,” said Fox News contributor and Democratic strategist Doug Schoen. “It's not a political problem for Hillary. It is an appearance problem.”
The alleged special treatment by Mayorkas, meanwhile, does not appear to have hurt his standing with the White House.
“We certainly value the kind of contribution that he has made to the effective management of that department, and he has played an important role in implementing needed reforms in that department,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
Republicans, including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, say the independent audit revealed a disturbing pattern.
"Digging into the report and reading about specific cases, you can see just how questionable Mr. Mayorkas' ethics and judgment were,” Grassley said. “And, just as bad, is the blind eye that the Obama administration turned when elevating this individual to the number two slot at the Department of Homeland Security."
Asked by Fox News how fast-tracking visas for politically connected Democrats was acceptable, Earnest said the recipients may have merited the documents anyway.
“[The inspector general] did not suggest that these individuals weren't deserving of a visa,” Earnest said. “What he suggested is merely that the process didn't work very well."
Administration officials stressed the report noted Mayorkas did not break any rule or law.
For his part, Mayorkas said he disagreed with the findings but “will certainly learn from it.”