US brokering talks for Gulf states to buy Israeli anti-missile system as Iran defense

Bahrain and other Persian Gulf states are in negotiations to buy the Israeli-developed Iron Dome anti-missile system to defend against "a growing arsenal of Iranian missiles".
The Israeli weapon, which has reduced the effectiveness of rockets fired out of Gaza into Israel by about 90% would be bought through Raytheon and other American contractors who developed the Iron Dome with Israeli arms giant Rafael.
A deal for the entire Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, would be worth tens, perhaps hundreds, of billions of dollars.
It would also include longer range interceptor missiles such as David's Sling, and the Arrow I and Arrow II which are capable of intercepting supersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles - also a joint venture between Israel and the U.S.
Khalid bin Mohammed al Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, said on the visit to London: "The Israelis have their small Iron Dome. We'll have a much bigger one in the GCC."
The sale of Israeli-developed weapons to Gulf states would have been controversial for both the Israelis and the buyers a few years ago.
But both now see one of the main threats to them as the growing military strength and ambitions of Iran.
The U.S. is quietly playing the "middle man" in the deal as a sweetener to bitterness caused in the Gulf over what the leadership in that region believe is a "naive" deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons programme.
"Iran has been trying to undermine and topple government in our region for years," the Bahrain foreign minister said.
He said that Iran's precision missile capacity was certain to increase as a consequence of the lifting of sanctions following the internationally brokered agreement with Tehran to end its nuclear weapons development.
"They will put a lot of money into this programme to develop techniques and tactics to defeat our missile defenses ... the strategy appears to be one of saturation to stockpile enough missiles to overwhelm any defense system we build in the Gulf," he added.
As a result of this perceived threat, plans to buy Israeli weapons, via the U.S., would result in a profits bonanza for both American and Israeli firms.
Talks are understood to be well advanced.
One senior Gulf government source said: "If Netanyahu were not making less of a mess of things and was more like Anwar Sadat (who signed a peace deal for Egypt with Israel) then we would be happy to buy the missiles straight from Israel."
Israel developed its anti-missile systems to defend against Gaza's rockets in part but overwhelmingly against Hezbollah's arsenal in southern Lebanon.
Israeli sources claim that this includes weapons capable of precision attacks on any target inside the Jewish state as well as up to 100,000 other missiles of less capability and accuracy which have been accumulated to try to overwhelm the Iron Dome and other systems with Iranian funds and supplies.
Led by Saudi Arabia, GCC nations are locked in a bloody conflict with Shi'a Houthi rebels in the Yemen which western and Gulf intelligence sources insist are backed by Tehran.
The GCC's fears of an Iranian threat increasing when sanctions are lifted has been further deepened by Tehran's growing alliance with Moscow which, like Iran, has come to the military defense of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
As a Shi'a-Russian crescent of influence is seen spreading across the Middle East, so Gulf states have been privately reaching out to Israel.
Now with a potentially massive arms sale, those relations are begin to emerge from the shadows of regional rivalries.

Clinton and O'Malley pummel Sanders on gun control laws

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley pummeled rival Sen. Bernie Sanders during Tuesday’s primary debate over what they argued was his soft stance on gun control, with Clinton saying gun violence has “gone on too long.”  
Sanders said he didn’t vote in favor of Capitol Hill legislation that punished gun manufactures, arguing it was “large and complicated” and also would have unfairly punished law-abiding, small gun-shop owners in his home state of Vermont.
“I voted against it,” said Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner and a former U.S. senator from New York. “I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn't that complicated to me. It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America.”
She also pointed out that Sanders voted against the Brady Bill gun-control legislation five times.
O’Malley argued he passed tougher gun-control laws as a Maryland governor, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school massacre, saying he did it in a state with large rural districts inhabited by many gun-owners.
“Have you ever been to the Eastern Shore?” O’Malley asked. “Have you ever been to western Maryland? … I have an F from the NRA.”
Sanders repeated several times during the exchange that he represents a “rural state,” and said directly to O’Malley, “You have not been in the United States Congress. And when you want to, check it out. If you think that we can simply go forward and pass something tomorrow without bringing people together, you are sorely mistaken.”
The Vermont Independent, who is running second in the Democratic primary field also said: “Bernie Sanders has a D-minus voting rating from the NRA. … Do I think that a gun shop in the state of Vermont that sells legally a gun to somebody and that somebody goes out and does something crazy, that that gun shop owner should be held responsible? I don't.”

Defiant Clinton defends flip-flops, downplays email scandal at Dem debate

A defiant Hillary Clinton defended her policy flip-flops and downplayed her personal email scandal while sparring sharply with her primary rivals at the first Democratic presidential debate, where the front-runner played the role of nimble-footed goalie to a field taking shots at her long record in public life. 
In comparison with the Donald Trump-dominated GOP debates, the lead-off showdown in Las Vegas Tuesday night was a relatively cordial affair for the Democrats, with the lively disputes centering on policy differences and not personal put-downs. But Clinton was the clear lightning rod, challenged early and often on her shifting positions – while also hitting back and trying to position herself as a practical progressive with every bit as much credibility with the base as candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I’m not taking a backseat to anybody on my values, my principles and the results that I get,” Clinton said, describing herself as a “progressive who likes to get things done.”
The front-runner, who has faced an insurgent challenge from her left in Sanders’ campaign, was visibly ready to tangle Tuesday with him and the three other candidates on stage at the CNN-Facebook debate.
While Sanders railed against a “casino capitalist process,” Clinton warned against abandoning the system that built America’s middle class. And Clinton sparred with Sanders and others as they questioned her call for a no-fly zone in Syria, and criticized her 2002 support, as a senator, for use of force in Iraq, a decision she’s since called a mistake.
Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee called it a “poor decision” and said he did his “homework” when he opposed that measure.
Clinton, in her defense, noted that President Obama asked her to be secretary of state because “he valued my judgment.”
When former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley suggested lawmakers were overtaken by “war fever,” Clinton quipped: “I am in the middle here – lots of things coming from all directions.” She then tweaked O’Malley by thanking him for endorsing her in 2008.
Whether Clinton’s performance Tuesday night will help her recover slipping support in the polls remains to be seen, as Sanders draws big crowds and catches up to her in recent fundraising. The two Democrats each gave little ground at the debate – though the Vermont senator mostly avoided aggressively attacking Clinton on stage.
When Clinton was pressed on her personal email scandal, Sanders even jumped to her defense.
In one of the more memorable moments of the night, Sanders said: “I think the secretary is right. ... The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
Clinton said, “Me too.” She thanked him and shook his hand.
Chafee, though, added that "credibility is an issue."
The exchange came after Clinton responded to a question on the email scandal by saying she’s taken responsibility for it and acknowledged it was a mistake.
She quickly pivoted to challenging the work of the congressional Benghazi committee, calling it “basically an arm of the Republican National Committee.”
The former secretary of state was also challenged on her policy flips by moderator Anderson Cooper, who asked if she will say anything to get elected.
“I’ve been very consistent over the course of my entire life,” Clinton responded. But she said “like most human beings,” she has absorbed new information.
Clinton was specifically challenged for opposing the Pacific-nation trade deal she once supported as secretary of state. Though she once called it the “gold standard,” she said Tuesday the deal “didn’t meet my standard.” She said she couldn’t tell voters it would raise their wages.
Clinton, though, tried to turn the tables on her rivals, and took a crack at Sanders’ record on gun control.
Asked if the Vermont senator is tough enough on gun violence, Clinton said, “No, not at all” and urged the country to stand up against the NRA.
She criticized him for voting for a 2005 bill giving gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits. After Sanders described that bill as complicated, she said, “It wasn’t that complicated to me.”
Sanders responded, “All the shouting in the world” is not going to end the violence. He said the country needs to reach a consensus, and stressed that rural states view gun laws differently than other states.
The Democratic presidential candidates otherwise tried to focus their message on the economy and lifting the middle class.
Sanders drew some of the loudest applause from the audience, as he called for reviving a “disappearing” middle class. He blasted the Citizens United campaign finance decision which he said is letting millionaires and billionaires fund candidates who only look out for them.
Clinton said, “At the center of my campaign is how we’re going to raise wages.”
Throughout the debate, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, the fifth candidate on stage, struggled to elbow his way into the conversation. He stressed his military experience and push for criminal justice reform and other issues while in the Senate.
Toward the end of the debate, Webb challenged Sanders for his big-spending proposals
“Bernie, I don’t think the revolution’s gonna come,” he said, adding he doesn’t think Congress would pay for a lot of his plans.
Webb, Chafee and O’Malley are all averaging at or below 1 percent in the polls nationally, according to RealClearPolitics. So far, it is Sanders who poses the biggest challenge to Clinton in the polls.
Clinton faced a dual task, though, Tuesday night – to not only outperform primary rivals cutting into her lead and but keep her biggest potential challenger, Vice President Biden, on the sidelines.
Biden still is mulling a bid and did not make Tuesday’s showdown. According to a White House official, Biden planned watch the debate at the Naval Observatory residence.
While Clinton remains the front-runner, a new Fox News poll underscored her potential vulnerability in a general election – and showed Biden faring better than her against would-be GOP rivals.
In hypothetical 2016 matchups, Clinton trailed all the Republicans tested, including Ben Carson by 11 points and Donald Trump by 5 points. By comparison, Biden was leading Trump by 13 points and Carson by 4 points.
The poll was based on interviews with 1,004 registered voters nationwide. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points for the head-to-head match-ups.

School Dress Code Cartoon

School says Air Force logo violates dress code

A Texas school district threatened to punish two patriotic sisters who refused to remove hoodie-style jackets emblazoned with the U.S. Air Force logo.
“It’s political correctness run amuck,” said Phillip Rolen.
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His twin daughters were told that the Air Force logo violated the dress code policy of the Aubrey Independent School District. The 11-year-old girls were told they could face disciplinary action if they wore the jackets on school property.
“These girls were born on an Air Force base so you can imagine my reaction,” Mr. Rolen told me. “It’s absurd.”
Mr. Rolen and his wife are Air Force veterans who raised their daughters in a “pro-military environment.”
“I’m patriotic,” he said. “Military tradition is rich in our family.
I reached out to the school to get their side of the story, but no one returned my telephone calls.
In a statement to the NBC television affiliate in Dallas the school district defended itself against accusations they were being unpatriotic.
“Aubrey ISD has a student dress code to follow, just as our military personnel are expected to wear uniforms,” Superintendent Debby Sanders said in the statement. “The dress code, which has been in place for over a decade, instills pride, discipline and levels the playing field for students to allow them to focus on learning.”
According to the district, all logos must be smaller than 1 ½-inch by 1 ½ inches. Outerwear that has larger logos must be left in lockers during school hours.
Mr. Rolen said his daughters were “bummed out” by the controversy.
He said they had purchased the jackets with money they made by selling cakes in a jar.
“They wanted to use their own money to buy their winter coats,” he explained. “They have a sense of pride in the military.”
He said his daughters have decided they will continue to wear the Air Force jackets – even if it means getting suspended from school.
“I told the school that we’re going to fight this,” he said.
But for now the patriotic twins will not be wearing their Air Force jackets to class. But it’s not because they’re afraid of being punished. It’s because the temperature in Aubrey is expected to be 90 degrees.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

Iran parliament votes to support implementing nuclear deal

TEHRAN, Iran –  Iran's parliament voted on Tuesday to support implementing the nuclear deal it struck with world powers, sending the measure to a council of senior clerics for who will review the accord before its final approval.
The 12-member Guardian Council could send the bill, which allows Iran to back out of the nuclear pact if sanctions are imposed or not lifted, back to parliament to reconsider. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on key policies, has said it is up to the 290-seat parliament to approve or reject the deal.
In the session carried live by state radio, 161 lawmakers on hand voted for the nuclear deal, while 59 voted against it and 13 abstained. Another 17 did not vote at all, while 40 lawmakers did not attend the session.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday when the Guardian Council would issue its own decision.
The bill gives the right of implementing the deal to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the top security body of the country that President Hassan Rouhani heads. Khamenei himself has not publicly supported or disapproved of the deal, though he offered encouragement for the Islamic Republic's diplomats throughout the months of negotiations over it.
Discussion of the bill in the parliament had been unusually tense, with hard-liners repeatedly trying to prevent a vote on the deal. Hard-liners hope to stall the deal in order to weaken Rouhani's moderate administration ahead of February's parliamentary elections.
During Tuesday's session, hard-liners claimed the bill had no support from Khamenei and tried to delay vote by raising numerous proposals on its details. Iran's official IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left the session after it got tense.
A preliminary parliamentary vote Sunday saw 139 lawmakers out of the 253 present supported the outline of the bill.
The deal calls for limiting Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. The accord came after nearly two years of negotiations between Iran and world powers including the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.
The West long has suspected Iran's nuclear program has a military dimension. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, like power generation and medical treatments.

Clinton slams Trump at union protest outside mogul's Las Vegas casino

Hours before Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, front-runner Hillary Clinton ripped into Republican contender Donald Trump at a union rally outside one of the businessman's own casinos.
Clinton, clad in a red shirt that matched the crimson-clad workers of the politically potent Culinary Workers Union, urged the workers to "say 'No' to Donald Trump."
"Some people say Donald Trump is entertaining," Clinton said. "I don't think it's entertaining when someone insults immigrants, when someone insults women."
The former secretary of state was the only one of the five Democratic candidates appearing in the debate to attend the rally. All had been invited by the union.
"I wanted to come by to lend my voice to all yours and I wish you well in these efforts,' Clinton said in a brief speech.
The union has been trying to organize the Trump hotel for more than a year. The union says it was approached by some of the 500 restaurant workers and maids at the hotel who wanted representation.
"Mr. Trump said, 'Make America great,'" Maria Jaramillo, a housekeeper who's worked at the hotel for six years, said at the rally. "The Trump workers say, 'Start it here!'"
Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump organization and the presidential candidate's son, said workers at the hotel are largely happy.
"For years the union in Las Vegas has been trying to unionize this hotel, and they have been incredibly unsuccessful," Trump said. "We have an incredible group of employees who have categorically rejected unionization."
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short mocked Clinton's appearance at the union  rally, saying, "These union workers must be relieved that Hillary Clinton's private jet got her to Las Vegas just in time to pander to them.
"The truth is, rank and file union members aren’t running to Hillary Clinton’s side after seeing her politically-motivated flip flops on trade, health care, and the Keystone Pipeline," Short added. "Their guess about where Hillary Clinton will stand the next time the political winds shift is as good as anyone else’s."

DNC vice chairwoman says she was disinvited from Democratic debate

A congresswoman known for taking on her own party is in a scrap with party leaders again, saying she was disinvited to Tuesday’s Democratic debate after calling for more of them.
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who serves as a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, told the New York Times on Sunday that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s chief of staff rescinded the invitation just a day after Gabbard appeared on MSNBC calling for more than the currently scheduled six debates.
A DNC spokeswoman said Gabbard was not “uninvited,” but was asked to keep the focus on the candidates.
“The focus of the debate in Nevada as well as the other debates and forums in the coming weeks should be on the candidates who will take the stage, and their vision to move America forward,” said Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the DNC. “All that was asked of Ms. Gabbard’s staff was to prioritize our candidates and this important opportunity they have to introduce themselves to the American people.”
Shulman told FoxNews.com the Democratic Party “is a big-tent party” that embraces its members’ “diversity of opinions and ideas.”
Gabbard and R.T. Rybak, vice chairs of the DNC, had issued a joint statement calling the DNC’s decision to limit presidential candidates to six debates a “mistake.”
“It limits the ability of the American people to benefit from a strong, transparent, vigorous debate between our Presidential candidates, as they make the important decision of who will be our Democratic Presidential nominee,” Gabbard and Rybak said.
It was not immediately clear if Rybak also suffered any fallout from the statement.
Gabbard, a twice-deployed 33-year-old Army combat veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, was unavailable for comment Monday because she was participating in a ceremony promoting her to military police major with the Army National Guard.
Gabbard has taken on her party leaders before, including President Barack Obama over investing $500 million to train and arm Syrian rebels.
Gabbard also challenged the president, her home state's favorite son, last February over his refusal to identify terror groups like the Islamic State as driven by "radical Islam.”
Gabbard’s spokeswoman said the congresswoman will watch the debate on television from her home in Hawaii.

Sanders Cartoon

Sanders, O'Malley jab Clinton ahead of first Democratic debate

Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday staked out their positions against front-runner Hillary Clinton ahead of the party’s first primary debate, challenging her stances of such issues as trade, domestic oil and gay marriage.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, ahead of the debate Tuesday, made the case that he has been steady in his views on U.S. trade deals and other policy issues while Clinton, a former secretary of state, has flip-flopped.
“People will have to contrast my consistency against the secretary’s,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Sanders, Clinton’s closest challenger, also argued that he has never liked a single U.S. trade deal, while Clinton last week opposed President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which she backed as the country’s top diplomat.
Clinton leads Sanders, an Independent, by double digits in essentially every national poll, but trails him 41-to-32 percent among likely Democratic voters in early-voting state New Hampshire, according to a NBC News/Marist poll released last week.
Vice President Joe Biden, who still has an open invitation to join Tuesday’s debate from host CNN, got 16 percent in New Hampshire, in the poll.
Reporters are essentially following Biden’s every public move this weekend in his home state of Delaware should he make an unscheduled announcement about his plans.
While Clinton and Sanders have so far declined to attack each other and are not expected to during the debate, the other Democratic candidates will likely be much more aggressive.
"I didn't shift positions right on the eve of the first Democratic debate," challenger and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said about Clinton on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Clinton also has shifted her support for same-sex marriage and more recently opposed the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, moves largely considered attempts to appeal to the more liberal or progressive voters attracted to Sanders, a Socialist.
O’Malley, who also opposes the TPP trade deal, is polling at about 1 or 2 percent, according to essentially every major survey.
O’Malley, Clinton and Sanders -- who are all calling for more gun control in the wake of another mass shooting on campus -- will be joined on the debate stage in Las Vegas by former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island governor and Sen. Lincoln Chaffee.
Webb and Chaffee also are polling at about 1 percent.
O'Malley also told CNN that he’s not worried about his low poll numbers heading into the CNN/Facebook Democratic debate.
"This race is really just beginning for the Democratic Party," he said.
Also on Sunday, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, said the party is open to a Biden run.
O’Malley has criticized the DNC and its leader for not having more than six sanctioned debates, suggesting the limited number protects the front-running Clinton. Sanders has called for more debates, too.

Powerful, conservative Republican caucus open to Ryan as next speaker

The leader of the House Republicans’ most powerful conservative caucus said Sunday that his group would consider Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan as the chamber’s next speaker.
“Paul Ryan is a good man,” Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told “Fox News Sunday.” “If he gets in the race, certainly our group would look favorably on him.”
The caucus, which was influential in ousting House Speaker John Boehner last month, has officially endorsed Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, one of the caucus' roughly 40 members.
However, Jordan said the group would consider Ryan, who as a veteran House committee chairman and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate is now widely considered the Republicans' best choice to unite the fractured caucus and become the next speaker.
Ryan, now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has so far declined to accept invitations, even from Boehner and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
However, he appears to be considering his options while Congress is in recess this week.
Jordan on Sunday said that Ryan -- or whoever becomes the next speaker -- can no longer run the chamber from an authoritarian, top-down style.
“No more business as usual,” said Jordan, whose group wants to see more bills from rank-and-file members get full floor votes and House leaders awarding committee chairmanships to a wider range of members.
He pointed out that in 2012 Boehner removed conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp, of Kansas, from assignments on the Budget and Agriculture committees, after Huelskamp voted against a budget proposed by Ryan, who was then the Budget committee chairman.
“That kind of stuff has to stop,” Jordan said. “This place has got to change.”
Jordan also dismissed criticism that his group refuses to compromise on a new leader, despite having only about 40 of the 218 votes needed to appoint a House speaker.
The GOP House conference postponed its internal speakership vote last week after the presumptive favorite, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abruptly quit the race, amid speculation he didn’t have the support or votes. However, the full chamber vote is still scheduled for Oct. 29.
“Of course we’re willing to compromise,” Jordan said.

Gowdy: Fired Benghazi panel staffer decided to 'run to the press' after failed effort to get money

The leader of the Republican-led special Benghazi committee tried Sunday to discredit a former staffer’s claim that he was fired for not joining in a partisan-driven effort to tarnish Hillary Clinton, saying he never even spoke to the ex-staffer.
South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said he never met with the staffer, investigator and Air Force Reserves officer Bradley F. Podliska, and that Podliska was, in fact, warned about his own efforts to discredit Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
“Because I do not know him, and cannot recall ever speaking to him, I can say for certain he was never instructed by me to focus on Clinton, nor would he be a credible person to speak on my behalf,” Gowdy said.
He also said Podliska has never mentioned Clinton -- from when he was counseled about his “deficient performance” to when he was fired and through the entire legal mediation process.
Furthermore, Gowdy said, Podliska has “run to the press with his new salacious allegations” after failing to get money from the committee.
The mediation process is scheduled to conclude Tuesday.
Podliska’s complaint was reported first on Saturday by The New York Times.
The committee was formed last year to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed.
However, Democrats argue the committee was really formed to attack the Democratic presidential front-runner.
Party leaders got a foothold on efforts to dismantle the committee a few weeks ago when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped as the committee continues to investigate her role in the tragedy and her related use of a private server and emails to conduct official State Department business.
And they appear to be taking advantage of Podliska’s allegations and purported lawsuit to further their efforts.
“These are extremely serious whistle-blower charges,” said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat. “Republicans have been abusing millions of taxpayer dollars for the illegitimate purpose of damaging Hillary Clinton’s bid for president.”
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans -- Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods -- were killed in the 2012 attacks.
Gowdy said Podliska mishandled classified information and was told as far back as April that he was “improperly” focused on Clinton and told to stop.
He also said the committee denied Podliska’s request to use interns for a project focused on Clinton and the National Security Council, saying Podliska was hired to focus on intelligence, “not the politics of White House talking points.”
Gowdy is also refuting Podliska’s claims that committee leaders retaliated against him for taking leave to go on active duty, which if true would be a violation of federal law.
He also argued that the committee has interviewed 44 new witnesses and recovered more than 50,000 pages of new documents, while “only half of one interview” has focused on Clinton’s server-email arrangement since news about it broke this spring.
“This committee always has been and will be focused on the four brave Americans we lost in Benghazi and providing the final, definitive accounting of the Benghazi terrorist attacks for the American people,” Gowdy said.

Obama says Clinton email server a 'mistake', but denies national security jeopardized

President Barack Obama said Sunday that Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server to conduct her correspondence while secretary of state was a "mistake", but denied that U.S. national security had been jeopardized as a result. 
"She made a mistake. She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned up is in part because of politics,"Obama said in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes". "I think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly."
Obama added that he was not initially aware that Clinton was using the private server, which was kept at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. as opposed to a professional data center. When CBS' Steve Kroft pointed out that the Obama administration has prosecuted people for having classified material on their private computers, the president said he didn't get the impression there was an intent to "hide something or to squirrel away information."
The FBI is currently investigating whether classified information that passed through Clinton's server was mishandled. Last week, the bureau extended its investigation to obtaining data from a second tech company, which had been hired by another firm in 2013 to back up data on Clinton's server.
Meanwhile, the State Department is in the process of releasing monthly batches of the 30,000 emails Clinton deemed "work-related" and handed over following her tenure as America's top diplomat. Clinton has said that she deemed another 30,000 messages on the server to be "personal" and deleted them from the server. An  intelligence source close to the investigation told Fox News last month that the FBI has "the highest degree of confidence" that those "personal" emails are being recovered.
Republicans have demanded to know if any of those emails were really work-related emails that should have been turned over to the State Department along with other federal records.

More on this...

• Trey Gowdy goes on offensive against Hillary Clinton

• Hillary Clinton distances herself from President Obama

In addition, Senate investigators recently discovered that Clinton's private server was subjected to unspecified hacking attempts in 2013 from China, South Korea and Germany.
Clinton, who remains the front-runner for the Democratic nomination despite seeing her once-overwhelming lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders shrink in the polls, has yet to answer specific questions about the security protections in her unusual email setup.
"What I think is that it is important for her to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public," Obama said Sunday. "And they can make their own judgment."

Paul Ryan Cartoon

Sources: Ryan taking Packers weekend to consider pleas to take the field for speakership race

For about 30 seconds on Thursday afternoon, during which Annie Daines was supposed to be the most-important person in Washington, D.C.
Daines is a press aide for House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and the daughter of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.
At about 1:45 p.m., Daines was expected to stride before a bouquet of microphones and phalanx of television cameras arranged in the echoic vestibule of the Longworth House Office Building. Daines would come bearing critical news: Who Republicans chose in a nearby conclave as their nominee for House speaker. Perhaps, more importantly, Daines would declare how many votes that candidate received.
Daines’s pronouncement never came.
Just feet away, inside the cavernous House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stunned his colleagues. He was expected to secure the nomination with the lion’s share of votes inside the Republican Conference. He’d probably log roughly 200 of the GOP Conference’s 248 members (including one non-voting delegate to Congress). But McCarthy needed to marshal somewhere around 218 votes on the House floor in an October 29 vote to succeed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The night before, the Freedom Caucus, the most-conservative bloc of Republicans in the House, declared that most of its 30 to 40 members would back Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., for the speaker’s gavel.
McCarthy faced an onerous path to 218. Between Thursday afternoon and October 29, right-wing radio would sizzle with anti-McCarthy invective. House Republicans would face chafing rhetoric at home from staunch conservatives adamantly opposed to the “establishment.” There was an increasing likelihood that neither McCarthy -- nor any other candidate -- could ever secure 218 backers.
A paralyzed House poses profound implications. The lower chamber is not permitted to conduct any business without a speaker. That’s a dangerous scenario considering that Congress must soon grapple with raising the debt ceiling and deduce a way to avoid a government shutdown.
Just after 8 am Thursday, McCarthy walked confidently into a session of House Republicans in which he would make his closing argument for the speakership.
“It’s going to go great,” McCarthy beamed exuberantly, a skip in his step.
Nearly two hours later, he exited the confab. I asked the majority leader if he “nailed down the votes.” McCarthy snapped his head upwards and roared with a belly laugh. He slapped me on the back -- but didn’t answer the question.
Still, was he getting anywhere? Could McCarthy close the deal on 218?
“It went really well,” McCarthy stated. “We are going to get the votes.”
With that, he bounded up a towering staircase in the center of the Capitol and bolted into his office suite. A cadre of Honor Flight veterans from McCarthy’s district awaited an audience with perhaps the next speaker of the House.
Two hours later, McCarthy was out of the running. Boehner cancelled the election. The acoustically-challenged Longworth corridors of granite and alabaster devolved into bedlam.
McCarthy determined this just wasn’t his time. Multiple sources close to McCarthy indicated it may be a bloodbath to get to 218 -- and he didn’t want colleagues to expend valuable political capital defending and promoting him just to seize the speaker’s gavel.
After all, many observers suggested the House was such a toxic cesspool now that a McCarthy’s speakership would be short-lived. He’d have to immediately wrestle with the debt limit and government spending bills. McCarthy would enjoy no honeymoon. Perhaps it was best to play the long game. Maybe a pathway to the speakership for McCarthy would emerge in a few years once the torrent calmed.
Meantime, members of the Freedom Caucus saw a road to the speakership on Thursday. They immediately questioned why Boehner called off the vote when the favorite quit.
“They probably wouldn’t have delayed it if I was the one dropping out,” Webster groused during an appearance on Fox Business.
A meeting will never be an orphan on Capitol Hill. So after the longer speaker candidate nominating session Thursday and the stunted, nine-minute episode in which McCarthy withdrew, Republicans conducted yet another assemblage Friday morning.
“We must have an orderly transition from one speaker to the next, and stepping down before we elect a new speaker would hurt the institution,” Boehner said. “It is my plan for this House to elect a new speaker before the end of October. But at the end of the day, that’s really up to the people in this room.”
The problem with the GOP leadership race is that Republicans struggle to unite around anything, let alone anyone.
Moreover, the preferred candidates of many wings of the party never stepped onto the field. A movement to draft Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., fizzled. Some conservatives hoped Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, would run. Others on the right favored House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.
“Mr. Chairman,” I called out to Hensarling as he walked into the House chamber Thursday afternoon to vote. “Would you run for speaker?”
“Chairman,” Hensarling answered, musing over the word for a moment, “Chairman is a really good, good title.”
Republicans knew at the Friday morning huddle there was but one House GOPer capable of filling the void: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
But there’s trouble with Ryan. If you look at his history, Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon stand a better chance of going to dinner together than Ryan seeking a congressional leadership post.
Ryan is the same lawmaker who some courted to run against Boehner for minority leader in 2008, after Democrats handed the GOP their heads at the polls that fall.
He’s the same congressman who took a pass at running for president, governor, senator and even majority leader after the unexpected primary loss of then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. -- to say nothing of speaker after Boehner announced his departure a few weeks ago.
“Ryan would be transformational,” predicted Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a South Carolina Republican and a conservative who backed Webster.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, indicated he’d drop his dark horse candidacy for speaker if Ryan entered the contest.
“I do believe that Paul Ryan is the one person who could clear the field,” added Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss.
Not surprisingly, Ryan declined to grab the baton -- at least not publicly or right now. Ryan’s aides published multiple statements declaring that he was -- like Hensarling -- enjoying the title of “chairman.”
But behind the scenes, Republicans deluged Ryan with a cascade of pleas. Boehner called. Mitt Romney phoned. Source say Ryan switched privately from a “no” to a “maybe.” He’d consider it over this weekend.
One source close to Ryan believed he would eventually come around. The source characterized Ryan as a “Boy Scout” who always did the right thing -- including salvaging the U.S. House of Representatives.
Others weren’t so sure.
“He told me ‘Hell no’ three times yesterday,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis. “He's told me ‘no’ enough times that I don't even ask any more.”
A window into Ryan’s thinking lies in the statement he issued when begged by some to challenge Boehner.
“My first priority in life will always be my wife and my three young children,” Ryan said. “As I reflect upon the strains that this position would place on my young family, I have decided not to enter my name as a candidate.”
One could crystallize Ryan’s confliction into the final moments he spent on Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon. The House completed its last vote series of the week. Not long after votes, Ryan sprinted out of the Capitol, down the House steps and into an awaiting, green SUV parked on the plaza. He declined to entertain reporter’s questions as he hustled toward the vehicle.
“Right now I'm going to make my flight so I can make it home for dinner,” Ryan said.
Someone asked what where Ryan’s plans for the weekend.
“The Packers are at home and they’re going to beat the Rams and cover the point spread,” he predicted.
Quintessential Ryan. Rushing home to spend time with his family and watch football. You can’t do that when you’re speaker of the House.
“I think the last thing we could do is pressure a reluctant warrior into service,” said Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo.
“He shouldn't be guilted into it,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
There’s concern that the political cloudburst to coax Ryan to run was too intense.
Some GOP sources worry the full-court press may have overwhelmed Ryan, cementing his inherent reluctance.
That said, Ryan could face a problem similar to McCarthy’s. Granted, there’s more musculature to the Republican support for Ryan. But the chasms are so deep in the GOP Conference now, it’s not certain that Ryan wouldn’t face similar criticisms from the far-right.
As speaker, Ryan could be forced to immediately cut deals on the debt ceiling and government funding with Democrats and the White House.
Conservatives would howl. The conventional wisdom is that he could lock up the speaker’s race quickly. But others question that theory. They point to his legislative and voting history: Support for the controversial fiscal rescue package in 2008 known as TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Plan). There are various votes to raise the debt limit and keep the government operating. He forged a controversial budget agreement nearly two years ago with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
“He's become a mouthpiece of the establishment,” said one Republican lawmaker who asked not to be identified. “He’s the go-to guy for Boehner.”
We haven’t even discussed immigration. Fair or not, several Republican lawmakers characterized Ryan’s view as “amnesty.”
There’s chatter now that Republicans could enlist Ryan to at least serve as speaker for just the remainder of the current Congress.
It’s widely believed that Ryan eventually wants to run for president. The speakership has a way of collecting a lot of political burs.
But serving as interim speaker limits the fallout. Plus, it ushers the House through the current crisis. As a result, Ryan looks like the hero, only bolstering his aura. He was willing to step into the fold when no one else could. Imagine what that looks like when he runs for president in few years or two decades from now? Hard to compete with those bona fides.
In Statuary Hall of the Capitol, a bronze floor plaque denotes the desk location of President James Polk. He is the only House speaker who later served as president.
The House was a raucous place in the mid-1830s. Churlish lawmakers frequently challenged one another to duels. One of Polk’s objectives as speaker was to tame the House and make it less cantankerous.
A comparable goal that faces Paul Ryan or whomever emerges as the next speaker.

Trump reaches out to religious leaders, tries to convince voters he has faith

Article taken from Fox News who is fair and balanced? 

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has faith -- or at least he is trying to convince Republican voters that he does.
Trump made a new effort Saturday to show he has support within the faith community, a key part of the GOP voting bloc he will need to help win the party nomination.
At a press conference before his rally in Norcross, Ga., Trump was joined by several dozen Evangelical and African-American church leaders in a bid to explain why religious officials are behind his candidacy.
“I don’t know what type of legislator he would be,” said the Rev. Dr. Darrell Scott, a minister from Cleveland, Ohio. “But I know one thing, he is a hell of a chief executive. He's a heck of a guy."
Scott, who was sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat, met with Trump in late September and with other religious figures to discuss the billionaire businessman's ties to faith.
Bishop George Bloomer, from Durham, N.C., suggested Saturday that his connection to Trump and his firebrand campaign rhetoric is “a spiritual thing.”
“Scripture about fire, purifying and consuming, Bloomer said, “what determines if it is consuming is what you put in it. It’s time for us to have somebody to bring jobs to this nation and look out for the Christians.”
Trump has said that the Bible is very important to him and even showed it off to a crowd at an event last month hosted by the Family Research Council.
"Some evangelical leaders believe that Christians are abandoning their values if they support Trump,” Robert Jeffress, a pastor with the First Baptist Dallas in Texas, told FoxNews.com. “I think that is much too harsh of a judgment."

Jeffress, who has also met with Trump in the past but hasn't made an endorsement, says religious voters know Trump won't "be leading Bible studies in the Oval Office."
But they are focused on picking a "leader who will solve problems -- and rightly or wrongly they assume Trump is the person to do it,” he said.
Trump perhaps might be visiting African-American churches in the near future. When Scott suggested he needs to see their houses of worship and meet their parishioners, Trump said, "Yeah, I got to do that.”

Declassified CIA report concluded director led 'cover up' of Kennedy assassination investigation

A declassified CIA report concludes former agency Director John McCone withheld information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., according to a recent news story.
The 2013 report, declassified last fall, concludes that McCone, who ran the spy agency when Kennedy was fatally shot in November 1963, kept information from the Warren Commission during its investigation into the assassination.
The report’s author, CIA historian David Robarge, writes that McCone and other top CIA officials were part of a "benign cover-up" to keep the commission focused on what the agency believed at the time was the "best truth … that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone," according to Politico Magazine.
The commission was established by President Johnson days after the assassination to investigate the tragedy and is officially known as the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
Robarge also writes that McCone and the others were "complicit" in keeping "incendiary" information from the commission.
McCone died in 1991. His testimony before Chief Justice Earl Warren and the rest of the commission was considered vital in the effort to get to the bottom of Kennedy’s death.
The commission's final report concurred with McCone's assessment that Oswald, a former Marine and Marxist, was the “lone gunman” and acted alone.
However, commission members also heard testimony from hundreds of other witnesses, reviewed FBI and Secret Service reports, visited the Dallas crime scene and analyzed Oswald’s personal records, as part of their roughly year-long investigation.
The 888-page report found the 46-year-old Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade below a school book depository building.
However, many people are unconvinced and argue that Oswald was part of a larger plot or conspiracy to kill Kennedy, perhaps in connection with Russia or Cuba.
Within an hour of Kennedy being shot, Oswald, who worked in the book depository building, killed a policeman who questioned him. He was arrested minutes later. However, Oswald was murdered the next day while being taken to a more secure jail, his motives and potentially connections never fully revealed.
Robarge's article also states that McCone was sure that Oswald acted alone and directed the agency to provide only “passive, reactive and selective” assistance to the commission, according to Politico.
The portrayal also suggests that McCone was more involved in commission dealings than previously thought.
The report quotes another senior CIA official, who heard McCone say that he intended to "handle the whole (commission) business myself, directly," the Politico story says.

GOP investigator says Republicans on Benghazi panel fired him over Clinton focus

A former investigator for the Republicans-led House Select Committee on Benghazi is alleging he was unlawfully fired from the panel for not focusing on Hillary Clinton and is vowing to file a federal complaint, according to The New York Times.
The former investigator, Bradley F. Podliska, is an Air Force Reserve officer and also claims Republican leaders on the committee retaliated against him for taking leave to go on active duty, which if true would be a violate of federal law.
Democrats have argued since the committee was formed last year that it is a political tool designed to inflict damage on the presidential campaign of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state during the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
And Democrats appear to be using the alleged lawsuit as another inroad toward dismantling the committee, sparked by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggesting in late September that Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped as the committee continues to investigate her role in the tragedy and related use of a private server and email to conduct official State Department business.
“These are extremely serious whistleblower charges,” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat, said Saturday. “Republicans have been abusing millions of taxpayer dollars for the illegitimate purpose of damaging Hillary Clinton’s bid for president.”
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the 2012 attacks.
In a statement obtained by The Times, the committee suggests Podliska repeatedly used resources for his own “hit piece” on Clinton and other members of the Obama administration and “vigorously denies all of his allegations.”

Terrorist Swap Cartoon

Conservatives flex muscle in House speaker race – but what do they want?

Grassroots conservatives are doing a victory lap after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy abruptly withdrew from the speaker race – but whether they can come together behind a consensus candidate and a common agenda remains to be seen. 
What exactly these groups and lawmakers want in a new leader, and whether they’d back somebody who also has favor with the so-called “establishment,” is the big question as the House postpones leadership elections.
In a series of interviews on Friday, representatives with several influential conservative groups told FoxNews.com they’re looking for a candidate who speaks to their values. Specifically – while their stances are not monolithic – they said they want to see someone who will “hold the line” on budgetary spending caps. Some also want to see more done on tax reform, an often-discussed goal that has never materialized into real action, as well as regulatory reform and efforts to rein in agencies like the EPA and IRS.
“There are places where we can and should be fighting,” Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance, told FoxNews.com.
Meckler has traveled to dozens of states to gauge political sentiment within the conservative base. “They are frustrated that their representatives have been fighting no fight. They feel like all they’ve seen is capitulation, surrender and unwarranted compromise. And they are looking ahead at leaders who will pick those strategic fights,” he said.
Meckler and others say the sticking point is also about style.
“From a grassroots perspective, I think [McCarthy] was polluted from the start in his association with [John] Boehner,” he said. “The way Boehner ran the House, there was very little input from the conservative wing and that was very frustrating for people.”
McCarthy, in withdrawing, said he thinks the conference needs a “fresh face” and voiced doubts about his own ability to attract a majority vote for speaker on the House floor.
His announcement immediately put attention on the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose 30-40 members were planning to back rival candidate Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla. But that’s just one faction – leaders face pressure from an array of conservative blocs, who in turn face pressure from a network of Tea Party groups, fiscal watchdogs and others pushing for limited government, lower taxes, and other issues, each with a different idea of what fights are worth having and what fights are a lost cause.
One area of common ground might be in budgetary spending caps, which some Republicans have tried to ease for defense.
“Our activists are adamant they hold the line on those spending caps,” said Levi Russell, spokesman for Americans for Prosperity. “I think there is recognition that some issues are more controversial than others. I think you start with spending. I think there is ample opportunity to enjoin the leadership on that issue.”
That, he added, will “give breathing space for the other, more controversial issues.”
Despite grumbling from the base, Boehner has entertained efforts to launch against-the-odds legislative fights with the administration, most notably using the budget as leverage to try and undo ObamaCare in 2013. The effort failed, as did a short-lived attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.
Republicans point to bills passed to green-light the Keystone XL Pipeline and repeal ObamaCare’s medical device tax as victories -- “but that’s small ball. People want to see real things get done,” Adam Brandon, CEO of FreedomWorks, told FoxNews.com.
There is no question these activists feel emboldened by recent events. After McCarthy dropped out, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin declared it the second “victory” for the grassroots – the first being Boehner’s resignation.
Left vying for the speakership are Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Webster. It is not clear whether either could get the roughly 218 votes needed to win. Others are considering joining and top GOP leaders are meanwhile pressuring Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to enter, despite his resistance.
“[Ryan] is a very credible candidate,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a member of the Freedom Caucus, told Fox News, adding: “Outside of that, there are already other candidates who are here.”
Meckler said there is a good chance other conservatives may end up jumping in by early next week. “There are people who have been in Congress for a little while, they know the people and they have a great track record,” he said, noting he’s heard Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s name bandied about, as well as Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon’s. “I would love to see [Texas Rep.] Jeb Hensarling get in the race,” he added.
As with the presidential primary race right now, Martin said, this is a time for outsiders, and not “establishment thinking.”
Yet, practically speaking, it’s unclear whether any true outsider candidate could muster a majority on the House floor for the speakership. Deep divisions remain in the Republican caucus, with a key complaint against the conservative wing being that they expect the leadership to be unyielding on demands they have little chance of getting.
Republican strategist Brent Littlefield said it is reasonable to look for a leader who sticks to conservative principles, but can “bring everyone together to move an agenda and be a good spokesman for our common beliefs.”
“I don’t think they are exclusive of one another,” he said.

House votes to lift 40-year-old ban on US crude oil exports

The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Friday that would lift the 40-year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude oil, a restriction that critics say hurts job creation and U.S. national security.
The House approved the bill on a bipartisan 261-159 vote. However, the White House has threatened to veto the bill should it make its way to the president’s desk, calling it unnecessary and arguing that the decision rests with the commerce secretary.
The bill heads next to the Senate. While it easily passed the House Friday, the 261-vote tally falls short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
The export ban was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975 in response to the oil embargo by Arab OPEC nations against the U.S. for its support of Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. But repeal supporters say the policy is now outdated -- and failing to repeal it would cost jobs.
"In my view, America's energy boom has the potential to reset the economic foundation of our economy and improve our standing around the world," Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio said in a statement.
"Let’s use the peaceful tools of energy development while creating jobs in America [to] replace the weapons of war in Europe and the Middle East. Let’s use our influence for good by selling this American made product – produced by American workers. Let’s do it in a bipartisan fashion today,” Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said Friday.
Cramer, one of the original co-sponsors on the legislation, had told FoxNews.com Thursday that Republicans hoped to get a significant bipartisan vote in the House in order to put pressure on the White House and challenge the veto threat.
Meanwhile, opponents say the bill would only benefit oil companies.
"This bill is an unconscionable giveaway to Big Oil at the expense of American consumers," said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla.
Selling U.S. oil to foreign markets would result in higher gas prices at the pump and ultimately benefit China and other economic rivals, Castor said.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said the bill is not needed as long as the U.S. continues to import millions of barrels of oil every day.
"Every barrel exported by this bill will have to be replaced by a barrel of imported oil," she said.
However, supporters of repeal  have said that, should the ban be lifted, U.S. allies might be less likely to rely on Russia and possibly even Iran for their oil needs, which would have important national security benefits for the U.S.
“It is unfortunate that the White House fails to understand the national security and geopolitical benefits of lifting the ban on oil exports,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska., said in a statement Thursday.

Donald Trump says Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed

LAS VEGAS –  Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Thursday that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed for leaving his post in Afghanistan.
"We're tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who's a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed," Trump said to cheers at a rowdy rally inside a packed Las Vegas theater at the casino-hotel Treasure Island.
"Thirty years ago," Trump added, "he would have been shot."
It was practically an aside in a litany of complaints at the end of a more than hourlong, free-wheeling speech that included a large dose of media-bashing and a claim that he was behind Rep. Kevin McCarthy's decision to drop out of the race for House speaker.
Bergdahl was charged in March with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The Army conducted a hearing on his case earlier this month. His attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement that Trump "has become a broken record on this subject."
"If he took the time to study what actually emerged at the preliminary hearing he would be singing a different tune," Fidell said.
Trump has, in the past, pantomimed a firing squad, Fidell said.
Bergdahl has been accused of leaving his post in southeastern Afghanistan in June 2009. He was held prisoner by the Taliban for five years, then exchanged for five Taliban commanders being held by the U.S. Trump has long railed against the deal.
The speech was punctuated by shouts of support from the crowd that filled about 1,620 seats in the Las Vegas Strip casino theater normally reserved for acrobatic Cirque du Soleil productions.
At one point, in a moment that appeared to be impromptu, Trump brought a supporter in the audience to the stage who declared she is Hispanic and voting for Trump. Myriam Witcher, 35, of Las Vegas, waved an issue of People magazine with Trump and his family on the cover, asking Trump to sign it.
Afterward, the Colombian immigrant, who noted she came to the United States legally, called Trump her "No. 1 person in the United States."
His speech spanned a spider-web of topics that included his disdain for media coverage, many of his fellow Republican presidential candidates and current political leadership as well as Thursday's news that McCarthy had dropped out of a race for House speaker.
"You know, Kevin McCarthy is out. You know that, right?" he asked the crowd. "And they're giving me a lot of credit for that because I said you really need somebody very, very tough and very smart. ... We need smart, we need tough, we need the whole package."
Trump didn't identify who had given him credit for McCarthy dropping out.

Obama reportedly considering executive action on gun control

Next it will be Knife Control?

As President Obama visited the community rocked by last week's Oregon college shooting Friday, the president was reportedly considering executive action on gun background checks -- after he called for Americans to turn gun control into a political issue in the wake of the shooting.
Obama met Friday with survivors and families of those killed in the attack at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. The gunman killed nine before killing himself.
"I've got some very strong feelings about this, because when you talk to these families, you are reminded that this could be happening to your child, or your mom, or your dad, or your relative, or your friend," Obama said at the end of his visit.
"And so, we're going to have to come together as a country to see how we can prevent these issues from taking place," he said.
The Washington Post reported that the White House is considering executive action that would compel background checks for "individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year." Dealers who exceed a certain number of sales each year would be required to obtain a license and perform background checks, the Post reported.
Current law says only those “engaged in the business” of selling guns need to obtain a license and perform a background check. Exempted are those who make occasional sales, or who buy or sell guns as part of a personal collection or for a hobby.

More on this...

• Protester: Obama standing on corpses for political point

Obama himself had not ruled out the possibility of acting unilaterally on the issue, saying in his news conference after the shooting that he had asked his team to see what he could do on his own to address gun violence.
“In terms of what I can do, I've asked my team, as I have in the past, to scrub what kinds of authorities do we have to enforce the laws that we have in place more effectively to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.  Are there additional actions that we can take that might prevent even a handful of these tragic deaths from taking place?” Obama said at the Oct. 1 news conference.
The proposal to expand background checks originally was part of a package of considerations mulled after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., but was rejected after federal lawyers expressed concern that setting a numerical threshold could be legally challenged, and ATF officials voiced objections that it would be hard to enforce, the Post reported.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest refused to rule out executive action from the Oval Office on the issue – saying it was an “ongoing” effort on the part of the president’s team.
“And the fact is there are a lot of things that can be done that don't undermine the basic constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans,” Earnest said.
Obama risks being outflanked on the issue by former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton who this week announced a number of gun control proposals, including overturning a law that prevents families of shooting victims from suing gun makers and using executive action to change the definition of who qualifies as a firearms dealer.
RELATED VIDEO: The truth about gun crime in America
Obama’s attempts to pass gun control measures through Congress previously have been unsuccessful, and in 2013 he announced 23 executive actions in the wake of the Newtown massacre. In his remarks after the Roseburg shooting, he called on the U.S. to turn gun control into a political issue.
“And, of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere, will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic,” Obama said.
However, any gun proposals would likely see unified opposition among Republicans in Congress and GOP 2016 hopefuls. Republicans argue that mental health, not guns, are to blame for mass shootings and that White House proposals on the issue would violate the Second Amendment and wouldn’t do much, if anything, to prevent mass shootings.
"Talk of gun control makes the liberals feel warm and fuzzy.  However, the cold reality is that when you disarm the good guys you put them at the mercy of the bad guys. That’s what gun control does," Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday in an opinion piece for FoxNews.com.
The president may face opposition to his gun control proposals even in the town of Roseburg when he visits Friday, although the White House has said that the visit will be about comforting the victims, not about proposing new gun laws.
Staunchly conservative Douglas County is filled with gun owners who use their firearms for hunting, target shooting and self-protection. A commonly held opinion in the area is that the solution to mass killings is more people carrying guns, not fewer.
"The fact that the college didn't permit guards to carry guns, there was no one there to stop this man," Craig Schlesinger, pastor at the Garden Valley Church, told The Associated Press.

Witness reportedly says French train hero was protecting woman during stabbing

Spencer Stone, one of three Americans hailed a hero in the French train attack in August, had his condition upgraded from serious to fair Friday and could get out of bed after being attacked outside a California bar.
Eric Cain, a worker at A&P Liquors, told KTXL he thought what he was witnessing was just another bar fight early Thursday morning.
"Next thing I know, I start walking back in the store and I hear a pow, like someone got hit so I turn back around and that's when it started running in the street," Cain told the station.
Cain said he realized one of the men involved was stabbed but he didn’t know who he was.
"It looked like he was protecting the girl because there was girls and guys and after the fight they all just kinda dispersed," said Cain.
The next morning, the victim turned out to be Stone.
Stone was out with four friends when they got into a fight near a bar with another group of people, Sacramento Deputy Police Chief Ken Bernard said.
"We know it's not related to what occurred in France," Bernard said.
The deputy chief didn’t disclose what sparked the argument but said there’s no evidence the assailants knew who Stone was.
Stone, 23, was knifed three times in the upper body and expected to survive after about two hours of surgery, said Dr. J. Douglas Kirk, chief medical officer at UC Davis Medical Center.
A grainy surveillance video from a camera outside a liquor store shows a large man who appears to be Stone fighting against a half-dozen people at an intersection as cars as onlookers pass by.
The group spills into the street as people take swings at each other, and the man who appears to be Stone knocks one person down before another man strikes at his back.
Police said two assailants fled in a car. No immediate arrests were made.
Sacramento Police Sgt. Doug Morse said Friday police interviewed a 24-year-old woman who was also hurt in the fight and was treated at a hospital for abrasions.
"We're really hoping that additional witnesses or anyone involved comes forward," Morse said. "Right now detectives are working around the clock to clarify all that stuff. It would be way too premature to discuss what witnesses saw."
Bernard said he did not know whether Stone was drinking but noted that others in his group were.
Kirk said Stone remained heavily sedated in the intensive care unit. He declined to discuss any details about the surgery or whether any vital organs were damaged in the stabbing, beyond saying Stone had "significant injuries."
The airman was conscious when he arrived at the hospital.
"I suspect given his history of recent events he is quite a fighter," Kirk said.
Doctors expect Stone to fully recover. Stone's family asked Kirk to convey their gratitude for all the expressions of concern they had received.
The incident comes after Stone and two of his childhood friends from Sacramento, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and college student Anthony Sadler were vacationing in Europe when they sprang into action aboard a Paris-bound passenger train and tackled Ayoub El-Khazzani, a man with ties to radical Islam. He had boarded the train with a Kalashnikov rifle, pistol and box cutter.
Stone, who is assigned to Travis Air Force Base in California, suffered a severely cut thumb and a knife wound to his neck during the struggle with the gunman.
President Barack Obama met with the three Americans last month, and they have been awarded France's highest honor.
Stone is the second of the three Americans to be shaken by violence at home since their return.
Last week, Skarlatos left rehearsals for TV's "Dancing With the Stars" to rush back to Roseburg, Oregon, after a gunman killed nine people at the community college that Skarlatos attends.

Black Cartoon

'Black Lives' leader defends looting in Yale lecture

What's Wrong with this Picture??

The “Black Lives Matter” leader who landed a teaching gig at Yale University delivered a lecture this week on the historical merits of looting as a form of protest, backing up his lesson with required reading that puts modern-day marauders on par with the patriots behind the Boston Tea Party.
DeRay McKesson, who was hired by the Ivy League institution’s divinity school to lecture for two days on "Transformational Leadership in the #BlackLivesMatter Movement," had students read an essay written at the height of the rioting and looting that plagued the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson just over a year ago after a white police officer shot and killed a black man.
“The mystifying ideological claim that looting is violent and non-political is one that has been carefully produced by the ruling class because it is precisely the violent maintenance of property which is both the basis and end of their power,” reads the August, 2014 post from the literary magazine “The New Inquiry” entitled “In Defense of Looting.” “On a less abstract level there is a practical and tactical benefit to looting. Whenever people worry about looting, there is an implicit sense that the looter must necessarily be acting selfishly, ‘opportunistically,’ and in excess.”
McKesson appears to have veered off of his syllabus for the lesson, which prompted some critics to offer a reminder that looting does indeed have innocent victims.
“There is zero justification for stealing private property and destroying a family’s livelihood – which is what occurred countless times in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere – but that’s apparently what passes as an example of ‘transformational leadership’ at the Yale Divinity School,” said Kyle Olson, founder of EAGnews.org, a blog that focuses on education reform.
"The article in question was not on the syllabus," a Yale Divinity School official confirmed. "But the instructor did send out some supplemental readings later in the process, including that particular article. We believe it's important for students to examine a wide range of viewpoints and ideas."

“There is zero justification for stealing private property and destroying a family’s livelihood.."
- Kyle Olson, EAG news

McKesson was asked to teach a one-credit course this fall as a guest lecturer. In accepting the offer, McKesson joined Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and the Rev. Nancy Taylor, whose Old South Church in Boston is located near the site of the 2013 marathon bombing, to teach a special three-section course as part of a new leadership program. The special course was administered through the YDS’ Transformational Leadership for Church and Society program. Each of the one-credit courses is being taught by a different guest lecturer and the program is funded through a $120,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
McKesson last worked in the Minneapolis public school system as a human resources administrator. According to his LinkedIn profile, his only teaching experience was between May 2007 and June 2009, when he was a middle school math teacher.
McKesson defended the lesson when asked about it by FoxNews.com.
“The relationship and tension between protest and property destruction is something that America has grappled with since the Revolutionary War & the Boston Tea Party,” he said via Twitter to FoxNews.com. “The reading ... allowed us to explore all sides of the American historical relationships and tensions present in protest.”
The Yale Divinity School official told FoxNews.com he could not comment on the seminar but did provide a copy of the syllabus for McKesson’s section of the two-day intensive course.
Readings for the course included Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book “Between the World and Me,” a Huffington Post article titled “How The Black Lives Matter Movement Changed the Church,” the book “Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfilled Hopes for Racial Reform,” by author Derrick Bell,” Leah Gunning Francis’ book “Ferguson & Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community,” and a New York Times article titled “Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us.”

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News of the reading material, which was not included on the syllabus, first surfaced during a live tweet of the seminar from an attendee.

The school does not endorse all the positions of the many speakers who come here each year,” the school official said of the course material.
He also pointed out that school officials in attendance relayed to him that there was no one in the room who spoke out in favor of looting when the article was being discussed.
McKesson’s credentials and the new coursework make it unlikely students at the vaunted New Haven, Conn., school are getting their money’s worth, said Olson.
“It’s surprising to me students would pay tuition – and likely incur much of that in debt – and be fed a line that crime pays, other people are to blame for one’s own problems, and that the system is rigged in favor of white people,” Olson said.
“None of this propaganda will fix one broken family, heal one fatherless family or help one more child learn how to read and become a productive citizen,” he added.