Navy veteran nears completion of Mississippi River swim to honor Gold Star families

If all goes according to plan, Chris Ring, a 28-year-old Navy combat veteran, will become the first American to swim the length of the Mississippi River when he reaches the Gulf of Mexico early next month. 
But for Ring, the achievement would be secondary to his larger goal: To raise awareness of so-called Gold Star Families, the designation given to loved ones of soldiers killed in combat.
"We all have what we have today because of these families and their loved ones," Ring told the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. during a break from his exertions near Vicksburg. Ring said he had heard of people unknowingly congratulating families of fallen service members when hearing of their Gold Star status.
"And the [families are] like, 'Do you even know what that means?'" Ring told the paper. "And then they tell them and everyone's like, 'Oh, it's awkward,' and they want to walk away."
Such stories prompted Ring to partner with Legacies Alive, a nonprofit to support Gold Star Families. He began his swim on June 6 of this year at the source of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca in Minnesota. By the time he reaches the Gulf, Ring will have swum 2,552 miles by the time he reaches the Gulf. Accompanied by a support team in a kayak, Ring averages 6.5 miles and 14 hours in the water each day, though he can make it up to 30 miles depending on the current and weather conditions.
At stops along the way, Ring is greeted by members of Gold Star Families, whom he encourages to sign the support team's kayaks.
"Every time I've had the opportunity to meet a family, it hits home more and more, and it makes me more steadfast and more dedicated to this cause every single day," he told the Clarion-Ledger. "They make me a part of their family, they invite me into their home, I stay with them, I hear their stories, and they have other children that really bond to us. It's so moving and powerful that they accept us and are so thankful for what we're doing."
A spokeswoman for Legacies Alive told Reuters that Ring has been delayed on occasion by bad weather, but has otherwise persevered through illness, exhaustion and a shoulder injury. After he reaches the mouth of the river, Legacies Alive says Ring will be recognized at the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia on Dec. 12.

Missouri assistant professor resigns from courtesy appointment after confrontation with journalist

Media under siege on Mizzou campus

 

 

Out of Control Idiots.

An assistant communications professor at the Missouri School of Journalism resigned from her courtesy appointment Tuesday after she was caught on video confronting a student journalist and attempting to block him from shooting photos on a public quad.
The video, showing University of Missouri protesters and Assistant Professor Melissa Click, was posted on Youtube shortly after University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned following a week of protests after his perceived lack of response to a series of racially-charged incidents.
Click’s courtesy appointment allowed her to serve on graduate panels for students from other academic units, according to the Columbia Missourian. Her position as mass media professor in the Communication Department remains unclear.
Dean of the Missouri School of Journalism David Kurpius announced Click's resignation on his Twitter account late Tuesday.
Click issued an apology after reviewing the video, saying she “reached out to the journalists involved to offer my sincere apologies and to express regret over my actions.”
“I regret the language and strategies I used, and sincerely apologize to the MU campus community, and journalists at large, for my behavior, and also for the way my actions have shifted attention away from the students’ campaign for justice,” she wrote in her statement.
“From this experience I have learned about humanity and humility. When I apologized to one of the reporters in a phone call this afternoon, he accepted my apology,” Click said. “I believe he is doing a difficult job, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with him.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Kurpius lambasted Click while lauding the photojournalist.
"The Missouri School of Journalism is proud of photojournalism senior Tim Tai for how he handled himself during a protest on Carnahan Quad on the University of Missouri campus," Kurpius said in Tuesday's statement.
"The news media have First Amendment rights to cover public events," Kurpius said. "Tai handled himself professionally and with poise."
Tom Warhover, the executive editor of the Columbia Missourian, a university newspaper, told the Times he was "pretty incensed" about Tai's treatment.
"I find it ironic that particularly faculty members would resort to those kinds of things for no good reason. I understand students who are protesting and want privacy. But they are not allowed to push and assault our photographers -- our student photographers."
Tai told the Los Angeles Times the situation resembled last year's protests in Ferguson, Mo., which he also covered. The only difference, he said, was "it was the police doing it then."

Military, immigration divide GOP candidates at 4th debate

Trump on immigration: 'We either have a country or we don't'

 

 

Deep differences among the candidates over everything from immigration to the use of military force were exposed at Tuesday’s Republican primary debate, where front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson often had to cede the spotlight to a full stage of spirited competitors.
Even Jeb Bush, who has struggled for airtime during past face-offs, was able to elbow his way into the fray, taking shots at President Obama’s economic record and Trump’s immigration plan.
“They’re doing high fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this,” Bush said, of Trump’s call to deport millions.Whether Bush, the former Florida governor who has steadily slid in the polls since losing his summer front-runner status, can regain momentum is an open question. And he was hardly alone among the middle-tier candidates asserting their policies on stage at the Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal debate in Milwaukee.
One of the biggest wedges was over the U.S. military.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul held his ground in vociferously calling for reining in the military budget and avoiding foreign military interventions. For this, he drew sharp rebukes from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina and others.
“I know that Rand is a committed isolationist. I’m not,” Rubio said.
Paul countered that spending on defense is driving up the debt and making America “less safe.”
“I want a strong national defense, but I don’t want us to be bankrupt,” he said.
This snowballed into a heated debate over Russia’s mounting intervention in the Middle East.
When Trump suggested the U.S. cannot be the world’s policeman, Bush said “he is absolutely wrong on this” and the U.S. needs to be the “world’s leader.”
Fiorina said both Trump and Paul should know that “we should not speak to people from a position of weakness.” In a stand-out moment, Fiorina rattled off her plans for countering Putin’s profile, including rebuilding the missile defense system in Poland, launching military exercises in the Baltic states and perhaps putting thousands of troops in Germany.
The U.S. needs to have the “strongest military on the planet and everyone has to know it,” she said.
“You can be strong without being involved in every civil war in the world,” said Paul, not backing down.
When Fiorina tried to interject, Trump scolded her – saying, “Why does she keep interrupting everybody?” – but was booed by the audience.
Rubio added that Putin is a “gangster” who understands “only geopolitical strength.”
The debate was the fourth for the GOP field and the last debate until mid-December, putting pressure on the candidates to seek a breakout moment before the holiday lull.
Unlike the most recent debate, where candidates sparred frequently with the moderators, the candidates on Tuesday mostly stuck to policy issues.
The immigration debate also drove a wedge into the field as Trump tussled with his GOP rivals over his plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
As he has at past debates, the billionaire businessman repeated his plan to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. And when asked whether he’d deport the millions in the country illegally, he said, “We have no choice.”
“We either have a country or we don’t have a country,” Trump said, adding that some of those deported could return.
The comment quickly drew in Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said, “Think about the families.”
He said illegal immigrants should pay a penalty, but called Trump’s plan a “silly argument” and “not an adult argument.”
After Kasich continued to slam the plan, Trump cited his own business record and said: “I don’t have to hear from his man.”
But Bush backed up Kasich and said Trump’s plan would “tear communities apart.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, though, sided with Trump. He said Democrats indeed are laughing, “Because if Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose.”
He also quipped, “If a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down wages in the press, then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation.”
The debate otherwise focused in large part on economic and fiscal issues, and the candidates used the opportunity to flag big government as a central problem holding the economy back.
Bush called for repealing “every rule” the administration has in progress.
“Start over,” he said, citing the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and other regulations.
Cruz said “the Obama economy is a disaster” but the economy could improve with tax and regulatory reform.
He called for “pulling back the armies of regulators that have descended like locusts on small businesses.”
At the opening of the debate, the two front-running Republican candidates, Trump and Carson, also said they would not raise the minimum wage, warning that would hurt the economy in the long run.
Trump and Carson were asked at the outset about protesters demanding a $15 minimum wage. Trump said while he hates to say it, “We have to leave it the way it is.”
He acknowledged Americans would have to work hard to “get into that upper strata,” but “I would not raise the minimum.”
Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, said raising the minimum wage would increase the number of jobless. He said the real issue is, “How do we allow people to ascend the ladder of opportunity rather than how do we give them everything and keep them dependent?”
He said, “I would not raise it.”
Rubio also chimed in, saying raising the wage would “make people more expensive than a machine.”
The eight candidates faced off Tuesday at a time of tense sparring within the field’s top tiers.
Trump used an Illinois rally the night before to hammer rival Carson over violent incidents during his youth and question why he’s doing well in the polls. Carson, for his part, has spent the last several days sparring with the media and his rivals over reports questioning his personal story.
At the debate, he was asked about some of that coverage.
“I have no problem with being vetted … What I do have a problem with is being lied about,” Carson said.
He suggested Democrats don’t face the same treatment, and citing Hillary Clinton’s faulty narrative about the Benghazi terror attack said, “Where I come from, they call that a lie.”
Cruz stumbled at one point during Tuesday’s debate. In a moment reminiscent of Rick Perry’s infamous debate gaffe in the 2012 primary campaign, Cruz said he wanted to dismantle five agencies but listed Commerce twice.
The prime-time event followed an earlier debate with lower-polling candidates, where New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly hammered Clinton as well.

Ben Carson No Matter What Cartoon

The high price the world could pay for Obama’s Syria, Iraq policy

As I’ve discussed on Fox News.com before, President Obama’s Syria/Iraq policy is not a policy.  It is a non-policy to do as little as possible about the chaos in these countries so he can hand this mess to the next president. 
The Obama administration has announced two major policy shifts in two years to deal with the Iraq/Syria crisis and the threat from ISIS.  Neither exhibited the decisive leadership that the world expects from the United States.  Both were reactive and piecemeal moves to counter multiple humiliations of America.
This has created a growing global perception of American weakness and indecisiveness that will embolden America’s enemies for the remainder of the Obama presidency and possibly beyond.
The first policy shift, announced in a speech by President Obama on September 10, 2014 in response to a series of ISIS beheadings, was supposed to “degrade and ultimately defeat” ISIS.  The president said this effort would include “a systematic campaign of airstrikes” in Iraq and Syria, training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebels, increased support to the Iraqi army and stepped up humanitarian assistance.

This rapid collapse of President Obama’s Syria-Iraq policy over the last few weeks has caused serious damage to American credibility.

The failure of the September 2014 policy shift was obvious soon after it began.  Pinprick airstrikes in Syria did not stop ISIS from making gains on the ground.  In Iraq, ISIS took the city of Ramadi last May despite being outnumbered 10-1 by the Iraqi army.  The Iraqi army and the Iraqi Kurds clamored for more arms while the Obama administration sat on its hands.
Obama’s 2014 policy shift suffered a spectacular collapse this fall when a failed $500 million program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels was cancelled and Russia intervened in Syria and began conducting airstrikes against anti-Assad rebels, many backed by the United States.  Iran also stepped up its presence in Syria by sending troops who are fighting to prop up the Assad government.
This rapid collapse of President Obama’s Syria/Iraq policy over the last few weeks has caused serious damage to American credibility.  Russian President Putin mocked and ignored President Obama as he sent Russian forces into Syria.  An intelligence sharing agreement was signed between Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran.  Iraqi lawmakers even called on Russia to conduct airstrikes against ISIS positions in their country.
The Obama administration responded to these setbacks with a new policy shift that looks even worse than the last one.
The president is sending “fewer than 50” special operations troops to help advise an alliance of Syrian Arab rebels.  Given the lack of a clear policy and confusing rules of engagement, such a small deployment will be scoffed at by America’s adversaries and may be at risk of being captured.  On Monday, President Obama made the preposterous claim that this deployment is consistent with his pledge of “no boots on the ground” in Syria and Iraq because these troops will not be on the front lines fighting ISIS.
The New York Times reported on November 2 the Syrian Arab rebel alliance that U.S. special operations troops are supposed to be advising doesn’t yet exist and is dominated by Syrian Kurds who mostly want to carve out their own state and have little interest in fighting to take back Arab territory from ISIS.  Moreover, American military support of the Syrian Kurds worries Turkey because of their close ties with the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group in Turkey.
The U.S. dropped 50 tons of weapons for the Arab alliance in late September.  Although U.S. officials initially said Syrian Arabs and not Syrian Kurds were the recipients of the airdrop, according to the New York Times, Syrian Kurdish fighters had to retrieve these weapons because the Arab units for which they were intended did not have the logistical capability to move them.

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An ISIS militant stands on a tank captured from Syrian government forces, in the town of Qaryatain southwest of Palmyra, central Syria. (Photo released Aug. 5, 2015 by Rased News Network, a Facebook page affiliated with ISIS/via AP)

The Obama administration’s latest Iraq/Syria policy shift includes a renewed call for Assad to leave office and a new round of Syrian peace talks.
New U.S. demands that Assad step down make little sense due to increased Russian and Iranian support.
The first round of U.S.-brokered Syrian peace talks were held last week in Vienna.  17 nations participated, including, for the first time, Iran.  The talks produced a vague communique endorsing a future cease-fire, a transitional government, a new constitution and elections in which Syrians would select a new government.  However, it seems unlikely the Assad regime – which was excluded from the talks – or its Russian and Iranian backers will ever support free and fair elections.
Russia and Iran rejected a timeline proposed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the peace talks under which Assad would step down in four to six months and national elections would be held in 18 months.  This puts a cease-fire out of reach since most Syrian rebels will not agree to a peace process that leaves Assad in power.
The Syria talks were overshadowed by the unwise decision by the Obama administration to include Iran because its presence legitimized its interference in Syria and Iraq.  This also made the talks tumultuous due to open feuding between Iranian and Saudi officials.  More talks are scheduled but Iranian officials have said they may not participate due to their differences with the Saudis.
So far, Mr. Obama has not agreed to Pentagon recommendations to back Iraqi forces with Apache helicopters or to allow U.S. military advisers to serve on the front lines with Iraqi forces.  These proposals are still reportedly under consideration.  Meanwhile, Republican congressmen continue to demand the Obama administration directly arm the Iraqi Kurds who are struggling to battle ISIS with inadequate and obsolete weapons.
America’s friends and allies know President Obama is pursuing a Syria/Iraq non-policy to run out the clock.  They know Mr. Obama’s initiatives are not serious policies but minor gestures that allow the president to be seen as doing something now while also enabling him to claim after he leaves office that he did not put U.S. boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria nor did he get America into another war.
Alliances in the Middle East are already shifting because of President Obama’s Syria/Iraq non-policy.  Russia is filling a power vacuum in the region and is building a new alliance with Iraq, Iran and Syria.  Russia has improved its relations with Egypt and Israel. Although the Saudis are working with the Obama administration to arm moderate Syrian rebel fighters, Riyadh is frustrated that the U.S. is considering compromise solutions which could leave Assad in power.  Saudi Arabia also reportedly is considering providing surface-to-air missiles to the Syrian rebels, a move the U.S. opposes since these missiles could fall into the hands of ISIS.
America’s enemies are certain to try to exploit the run-out-the-clock foreign policy that President Obama apparently plans to pursue for the remainder of his term in office.  This could mean a surge in global provocations, terrorism and violence from North Korea to the South China Sea to Afghanistan and to the Middle East due to the disappearance of American leadership over the next 15 months.
Remember that the weakness and incompetence of President Clinton’s foreign policy emboldened Al Qaeda to step up terrorist attacks against U.S troops and led Osama bin Laden to believe that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks would drive the United States from the Middle East.  With Barack Obama dithering away America’s global credibility, a catastrophic terrorist attack like 9/11 could happen again.

Donald Trump

Businessman Donald Trump became the first major Republican Party candidate to file for the first in the nation primary in New Hampshire.
Trump arrived at the secretary of state’s office Wednesday morning surrounded by supporters and reporters following the candidate’s movements at the state capitol.
"This may be a very, very important signature or maybe not so important, we'll have to see what happens,” Trump told the press as he signed the paperwork. 
Like other candidates, Trump was able to write a campaign slogan on the form to show he signed up for the February contest.  “’Make America Great Again’- that's what we're going to do!"
Afterwards, Trump joined local and national media to discuss his latest take on 2016 politics.
The candidate announced he’s launching a pair of radio ads in early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina this week.  He hinted that television ads were soon to follow.
He also used a familiar attack on two of his Republican rivals. “Jeb is low energy, Ben Carson is super low energy, he falls asleep every time he gets in a car!”

Carson’s war on Politico, CNN and the media: Has the scrutiny gone too far?

The topsy-turvy spectacle has been nothing short of bizarre: Ben Carson insisting he was an angry teenager who once tried to stab someone, while a media organization says he was a nice kid.
And yet that prompted the presidential candidate to denounce CNN for peddling “garbage” that he dismissed as a “smear.”
A day later, Carson accused Politico of an “outright lie” for reporting that he had falsely claimed in his autobiography to have been offered a full scholarship to West Point.
Carson seems deeply offended that journalists are digging into his past and challenging his veracity, though that’s standard procedure in presidential campaigns. At the same time, he’s scoring points against the unpopular media, which have overreached at times in digging into the doctor’s past.
These biographical details may matter more to Carson than to most candidates, since his inspiring life story—from an impoverished childhood with a single mother to world-class neurosurgeon—is the bedrock foundation of his campaign.
The irony is that Carson’s quiet dignity and low-key temperament are a major source of his appeal. But in denouncing the media in recent days, he looks downright angry.
What CNN set out to do by talking to old friends and neighbors was not a smear. The network never accused Carson of lying, but reported that nine people interviewed had said violent outbursts would seem utterly out of character for him.
But the clear implication was that Carson had perhaps been exaggerating the stabbing incident and another in which he said he almost hit his mother with a hammer. The network didn’t have the goods and probably should have held the piece for more reporting.
The story prompted Carson to acknowledge to Megyn Kelly that the person he tried to stab was not a friend, as he said in his autobiography, using a phony name, but a close relative. And then he had an epic on-air battle with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota, insisting with some justification that the people the network interviewed would have no way of knowing about violent incidents in his past.
The next day came the screaming Politico headline that Carson had admitted fabricating a story about West Point. This was way overstated, which was underscored when the website greatly softened the headline.
Carson told Bill O’Reilly that he was not in fact offered a scholarship to West Point, but was told he’d have an “easy” time if he applied. And applying—all cadets attend free—is a complicated process that requires sponsorship by a member of Congress or secretary of the Army.
The Wall Street Journal joined the fray over the weekend, questioning, among other things, an anecdote in which Carson says when his fellow black high school students erupted in anger after the murder of Martin Luther King, “he protected a few white students from the attacks by hiding them.” But the paper could not prove it didn’t happen.
These distinctions and discrepancies undoubtedly seem miniscule to Carson’s fans, who have pushed him into a neck-and-neck competition with Donald Trump in national polls. The same goes for the flaps over what Carson has said about the Pyramids, Nazi Germany and other off-topic subjects.
A more experienced politician would be accustomed to the scrapes and scratches inflicted by media scrutiny. Of course, Ben Carson prides himself on not being a politician.
When I spoke with him at length last spring, Carson said he considered the media to be biased, but seemed rather Zen about it. Now he seems appalled, as he made clear at a contentious Florida news conference on Friday.
For most people, relitigating what happened 50 years ago, when Carson was a teenager, seems like overkill. And there was a telling moment yesterday on “Meet the Press”: Asked whether his mother (who Carson says he almost hit with a hammer) couldn’t come forward to clarify some of these incidents, the candidate said: “My mother has Alzheimer’s.” That put things in perspective.
But whether the scrutiny is reasonable or overzealous, Carson should recognize that this is the price of admission for the people who want to be president.

Egypt investigators '90 percent sure' bomb brought down Russian aircraft, report says

A member of the Egyptian team investigating the deadly crash of a Russian passenger jet in the Sinai Peninsula has been quoted as saying that he and his colleagues are "90 percent sure" the plane was brought down by a bomb. 
Reuters, which reported the unnamed team member's comments, said he had asked not to be named due to "sensitivities."
"The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb," the investigator added. His comments are the first reported acknowledgement from anyone connected with the investigation that the Airbus A321-200 was the target of an attack.
Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed on Oct. 31, 23 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport. All 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacationers returning to their homes, were killed.
Over the course of the past week, U.S. and U.K. investigators, relying on intercepted communications and other intelligence, have suggested that a bomb carried out by Islamist militants was the likely cause of the disaster. However, Russian and Egyptian authorities initially dismissed claims of responsibility by the ISIS terror group before publicly insisted that other possible causes could not be ruled out.

More on this...

• What's next for US security if ISIS did down Russian jet?

On Saturday, the day before the Reuters report was published, lead Egyptian investigator Ayman el-Muqadem said it was too soon to draw conclusions about why the plane crashed, claiming that a fuel explosion, metal fatigue in the plane, or overheating lithium batteries may have caused the disaster. He added that debris was found scattered across a 8-mile stretch of desert, indicating the Airbus A321-200 broke up mid-air.
Britain and several airlines have stopped normally scheduled flights to the Red Sea resort city, while Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt because of security concerns. British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond told the BBC on Sunday that if the bomb is confirmed, it will require a potential rethinking of airport security in all areas where the extremist group is active.
Meanwhile, the first of three teams of Russian inspectors was dispatched to the country to examine airport security. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich did not give details on what specific security issues the inspections teams would be examining. Dvorkovich said that 11,000 Russians were flown home from Egypt on Saturday and an even larger number were expected to leave Sunday, according to Russian news agencies.
Egyptian airport and security officials told The Associated Press on Saturday that authorities were questioning airport staff and ground crew who worked on the plane and had placed some employees under surveillance. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Security officials at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport have told The Associated Press that the facility has long had gaps in security, including a key baggage scanning device that often is not functioning and lax searches at an entry gate for food and fuel for the planes. One security official said drugs and weapons slip through security checks at the airport because poorly paid policemen monitoring X-ray machines can be bribed.
A spokesman for Egypt's Aviation Ministry, Mohamed Rahma, dismissed the accounts of inadequate security, saying "Sharm el-Sheikh is one of the safest airports in the world," without elaborating.
Egyptian authorities have bristled at the allegations of lax security, with some blaming an anti-Egypt bias in the foreign media. Those sensitivities were on display Sunday as foreign camera crews were prevented from filming inside the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, along the city's main tourist strip in Naama Bay, or in other public spaces.
Despite strong government denials, the suggestions of a major security breach at Sharm el-Sheikh airport have gained traction among some Egyptians. On Saturday an Associated Press reporter at Cairo airport witnessed several passengers yelling at security personnel to pay more attention to the X-ray scanner, with one man repeatedly shouting, "This is what happened in Sharm!"
In Russia, more than a thousand mourners packed into the landmark St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg for a memorial service for the victims. Attendees lit candles and stood in silence as the cathedral bells rang 224 times to remember each victim.
"We came to the service today with all our family to support the people in our common grief," said Galina Stepanova, 58.
Stepanova said she believed the plane was downed by a bomb, but said that Russia should continue its airstrike campaign against the Islamic State group and other insurgents in Syria.
"We have a rightful cause to help Syria in its fight against terrorism," she said.
Mikhail Vishnyakov, a 42-year-old sales manager who attended the service with his family, said he did not want to rush to conclusions about the cause of the plane crash until the investigation was complete.
"If it was a terrorist act, I don't think it was directed exactly against Russia. It could well be directed against any other plane of any other country. It was for a good reason that other countries began to take their tourists from Egypt," Vishnyakov said.

Mexican Cartoons

Cruz, Huckabee, Jindal preach conservative principles

Passionately professing that the Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage must be overturned and laying out their conservative credentials, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal pulpiteered to over 1,700 conservative Christians in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday for a two-day National Religious Liberties Conference.
Before hearing from the presidential contenders, evangelical families collected name tags, perused a table filled with books like "What does the Bible Say About That: A Biblical Worldview Curriculum for Children" and connected with other like-minded conservatives. In the dimly lit hall, Kevin Sawnson, executive director of Generations, which was hosting the event, set the tone in describing same-sex marriage as a "significant cosmic revolution against almighty God."

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Ted Cruz: Religious liberty is my foundational passion

"Some of our leaders are encouraging civil disobedience. Some of the most significant religious leaders in this country are looking you straight in the eye, and they are telling you, you disobey the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the supreme law-giver of all this universe, and that is God. Well, friends, this is a wake-up call from the church," Swanson said. "I believe God is telling you are going to be persecuted. Either you are going stand with me or you are coming down with the rest of them."
When Cruz took the stage, he didn't hesitate in diving into how religion and government should be connected.
"Any president that doesn't start the day on his knees isn't fit to be commander in chief," Cruz passionately said.
Jindal pushed forth a similar message -- ardently citing the need for a religious revival in the U.S. He started off his 10 minutes on stage saying that the left is trying to take away First Amendment religious liberty rights. For this reason, Jindal told the room that 2016 will be "the most important election of our lifetime" and moved on to tout his own conservative record.
Huckabee, also diving head on into the social issues, said that same-sex marriage "is not law." He then moved quickly onto abortion, citing one prime question that has yet to be resolved: "Is the unborn child a person? Or just a blob of tissue?" From there, he pressed Republicans to force the left to defend themselves on what he called the right to kill a baby.
But for many in attendance, it was not so much the candidates that they were there to see -- it was, rather, the conference's doctrine that they were there to support.
Asked if a few young men sporting red Cruz stickers were there to see the senator, Johan Gervais, a 25-year-old from Texas, said, "Well, we are here for the religious liberty conference." He had driven to the conference with seven of his evangelical friends and happily noted that Cruz is their senator.
But Cruz was a favorite in the room. "We like him," said Graham Featherston, one of Gervais' fellow roadtrippers from Austin. Featherston is only 15 but said that if he could vote he would vote for Cruz. The group drove over 14 hours to attend the conference and knew a group of four girls who had also made the trek.
Generations, the conference's host, is based in Colorado Springs and decided to host the conference in Iowa because this is its first political convention. It seemed "pivotal" to be in the state that first voices its opinion in the primary process, said one person who works at Generations.
That said, out-of-towners were not an anomaly. Of the 1,700 attendees, only 387 were from Iowa.
Etsu Van Slooten, from Wisconsin, was there with her five children and her husband. Born in Japan, she went to college in the U.S. to study social work and immediately started working at Head Start, the federal program that promotes early childhood education for low-income families. But she soon realized that she needed to change her professions and devote herself more ardently to religion.

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Jeb Bush knocks White House for "aggressive stance against" religious freedom

"I felt like I was helping people go to hell," Van Slooten said. "I wanted to work for something that makes a difference for a human being. So I went back to mission work for something that would give light."
Pushing her stroller, Van Slooten said that she, like many others at the conference, was a homeschooler.
Rafael Cruz, Ted Cruz's father, took to the stage later in the evening for about an hour and made a pitch to the homeschooling families in the room, telling them that the government does not want parents helping kids with their homework because it brainwashes them.
Talking to reporters after his speech, the younger Cruz specifically addressed the relationship between him and his father, an immigrant from Cuba who he considers his hero.
"He is someone who I have admired my entire life because he knows what he believes and he stands up and tells the truth," Cruz said. "What a blessing to be a child of an immigrant who fled oppression. It makes you realize just how precious and fragile liberty is."
Huckabee said religious liberty should be applied to all religious perspectives.
"We should protect the rights of an atheist, to believe that there is no God, as much as we should protect the rights that I have to believe that Jesus Christ is God," Huckabee told reporters.
Cruz and his father pressed home the need for voting momentum and action, urging people to get out and vote.
"If another 10 million evangelical Christians vote in 2016 and simply vote our values, we won't be up at 3 in the morning wondering what happened in Ohio and Florida," Cruz said. "They'll call the election at 8:35 p.m. because Christians would have turned this country around."
His father also urgently pressed evangelicals to get to the polls in order to fight back against "Christians being singled out."
"God didn't put Obama in power. We did! By sitting on our rear ends," the elder Cruz said. "Make sure everyone understands that voting is our civic responsibility."
Before leaving the stage, after almost an hourlong speech, he made the pitch that his son was the best choice. He described him as a leader, a fighter and the "man of the hour."
"Rafael for vice president!" an audience member shrieked as he walked off the stage.

Pentagon to release Guantanamo detainee relocation plan, as Obama pressed ahead with closure

The Pentagon is expected to release a plan next week on President Obama’s years-long effort to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center that suggests a Colorado prison dubbed “the Alcatraz of the Rockies” as one suitable site to relocate expected life-long detainees, Obama administration officials say.
Obama made a campaign promise in his 2008 White House bid to close the facility, arguing the move would be in the United States’ best financial, national security and foreign policy interests and in the name of justice -- considering some of the detainees have been held for nearly nine years without trial or sentencing.
However, critics of the promise, including many Republicans, fear transferring detainees to the U.S. mainland as part of an overall closure plan poses too much of a homeland security risk. They also say the president has yet to submit a closure plan and have been critical of the administration recently allowing some known terrorists to return to the Middle East.
The Florence, Colo., prison is among seven U.S. facilities in Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina being considered.
The Pentagon plan represents a last-gasp effort by the administration to convince staunch opponents in Congress that dangerous detainees who can't be transferred safely to other countries should be housed in a U.S.-based prison.
The United States opened the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to get suspected terrorists off the battlefield.
Congressional Republicans have been able to stop Obama from closing the facility by imposing financial and other restrictions.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said this week that the administration is trying “very hard” to transfer 53 more detainees, among the 112 remaining, before the end of the year.
The rest are either facing trial by military commission or the government has determined that they are too dangerous to release but are not facing charges.
Any decision to select a U.S. facility would require congressional approval -- something U.S. lawmakers say is unlikely. However, Earnest also suggested that Obama has not ruled out the possibility of using an executive order to close the facility.
The Pentagon plan makes no recommendations on which of the seven sites is preferred and provides no rankings, according to administration officials.
A Pentagon assessment team reviewed the sites in recent months and detailed their advantages and disadvantages. They include locations, costs for renovations and construction, the ability to house troops and hold military commission hearings, and health care facilities.
Colorado's Centennial Correctional Facility has advantages that could outweigh its disadvantages, according to officials. But no details were available and no conclusions have been reached. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The Florence, Colo., facility already holds convicted terrorists, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Zacarias Moussaoui, one of the conspirators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
To approve a transfer, Defense Secretary Ash Carter must conclude that the detainees will not return to terrorism or the battlefield upon release and that there is a host country willing to take them and guarantee they will secure them.
Arizona Sen. John McCain is among the congressional Republicans who have asked for an administration plan for the shutdown of Guantanamo. And the Pentagon's assessment team visits over the last few months were part of the effort to provide options for the relocation of Guantanamo detainees.
"I've asked for six and a half years for this administration to come forward with a plan -- a plan that we could implement in order to close Guantanamo. They have never come forward with one and it would have to be approved by Congress," McCain said this week.
The facilities reviewed by the assessment team were the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Leavenworth, Kansas; the Consolidated Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the medium, maximum and supermax facilities in Florence, Colorado; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colorado, also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility.
Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner made clear this week that he opposes any move to relocate detainees to his state.
"I will not sit idly by while the president uses political promises to imperil the people of Colorado by moving enemy combatants from Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, to my state of Colorado," he said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
He also expressed concerns about the potential impact of such a move on the state’s judicial system and concerns about detainees potentially have to transported from the rural facility to downtown Denver to the federal courthouse for a hearing.
McCain and others have said that an executive order to shutter Guantanamo would face fierce opposition, including efforts to reverse the decision through funding mechanisms.
The prison at Guantanamo presents a particularly confrontational replay of that strategy. Obama would likely have to argue that the restrictions imposed by Congress are unconstitutional, though he has abided by them for years. The dispute could set off a late-term legal battle with Republicans in Congress over executive power, potentially in the height of a presidential campaign.

Donald Trump Hosts ‘SNL,’ But Larry David Wins the Bounty

Donald Trump elicited just the reaction you would expect from his “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig: Polarizing.

Reaction ranged widely on Twitter, from some saying the episode was a resurgence for the show this season, to others positing the sketches were so bad the writers must have been conspiring to sabotage Trump’s campaign.

One clear winner of the evening was Larry David, who not only returned to play Bernie Sanders but also stands to earn $5,000 for shouting that Trump was a racist while the presidential candidate was on stage. That moment was in itself a riff on one protest group’s offer of $5,000 to anyone who heckled Trump.

Shortly afterward, the political action committee that offered the money, Deport Racism, indicated that David would be in line to receive the reward.

Before the start of the show, hundreds of protesters marched from Trump headquarters to 30 Rockefeller Center, where the show is taped, and held signs such as “racismisntfunny” as well as effigies of the candidate. Many Latino groups, including the National Hispanic Media Coalition, called on NBC to drop Trump, as did the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The Democratic National Committee released a statement before the show even began, saying that his appearance was “no laughing matter given his offensive rhetoric and the tone of his campaign.”

Trump wasn’t the first presidential candidate to host the show. Al Sharpton had the gig in 2003, as he was running for the Democratic nomination. George McGovern hosted in 1984, just after ending his presidential campaign that year.

Stuart Stevens, senior strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and a screenwriter, tweeted, “Was any politician ever better off after SNL? I don’t get why they keep doing it?”

Carson says West Point story, others about his past are bias, amount to 'witch hunt'

Soft-spoken GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson on Friday lashed out at the news media for recent stories about his long-ago past, saying they are bias and amount to a “witch hunt.”

Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, has indeed faced intense media scrutiny over the past couple of weeks as he moves to the front of some national primary polls.

Over the past several days, Politico published a story questioning whether Carson, a first-time candidate, receiving a scholarship offer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

And CNN reported finding no support for Carson's oft-repeated claim that he tried to stab a close friend as a teenager. Citing privacy concerns, his campaign has refused to name the person involved.

"I think what … these kinds of things show, is there is a desperation on behalf of some to try to find a way to tarnish me," Carson said Friday night during a news conference outside West Palm Beach, Fla.

He also said such efforts will only strengthen him among supporters, who “understand this is a witch hunt.”

In an intense exchanged with reporters during the news conference, Carson argued President Obama didn't receive the same level of scrutiny in his 2008 White House bid.

“In fact, I remember just the opposite,” he said.

Carson cited Obama’s relationships with Frank Marshall Davis, who had ties to the Communist Party, and Bill Ayers, a college professor who in the 1970s led the radical left group the Weather Underground.

He also asked reporters why they haven’t tried to unseal Obama’s under-graduate records.

“Why are you guys not interested in why his records are sealed?” Carson asked.

Carson has developed a passionate following based in part on his inspirational personal story and devotion to Christian values. The only African-American in the Republican 2016 class, he grew up in inner-city Detroit and often speaks about his childhood brushes with violence and poverty.

Following the Politico story that was published Friday, the Carson campaign sought to clarify the candidate’s story about his interest in attending West Point in his breakout book, "Gifted Hands," in which he outlines his participation with the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, commonly known as ROTC, while in high school.

"I was offered a full scholarship to West Point," Carson wrote in the 1996 book. "I didn't refuse the scholarship outright, but I let them know that a military career wasn't where I saw myself going. As overjoyed as I felt to be offered such a scholarship, I wasn't really tempted."

Campaign spokesman Doug Watts said Carson was "the top ROTC student in the city of Detroit" and "was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC supervisors."

"They told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in ROTC. He considered it, but in the end did not seek admission," Watts said.

Students who are granted admission to West Point are not awarded scholarships. Instead, they are said to earn appointments to the military academy, which come with tuition, room and board and expenses paid, in exchange for five years of service in the Army after graduation.

A West Point spokesman on Friday said the academy "cannot confirm whether anyone during that time period was nominated to West Point if they chose not to pursue completion of the application process."

At the Friday news conference, Carson said, "It was an offer to me. It was specifically made." He said he could not recall specifically who made the offer. "It's almost 50 years ago. I bet you don't remember all the people you talked to 50 years ago," he said.

Pressed further by reporters, Carson said: "What about the West Point thing is false? What is false about it?" Asking if he had made a mistake in recounting the story, he said, "I don't think so. I think it is perfectly clear. I think there are people who want to make it into a mistake. I'm not going to say it is a mistake, so forget about it."

Hours earlier, Carson had told Fox News in an interview, "I guess it could have been more clarified. I told it as I understood it."

In a post Wednesday on his Facebook page, Carson wrote that "every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience." About half had been elected members of colonial assemblies, and Watts acknowledged the error to The Washington Post.

On another topic, Carson has said the great pyramids of Egypt were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, although the accepted science says that they were tombs for pharaohs.

Trump takes center stage on 'Saturday Night Live'

Donald Trump returned to “Saturday Night Live” this weekend to poke fun at his persona and take another swipe at longtime nemesis Rosie O’Donnell.
“She said some things about me that were hurtful and untrue,” he jabbed in the show’s opening monologue.  “I said some things about her that were mean, but completely accurate.”
Trump — only the second active presidential candidate to host the sketch comedy series (Rev. Al Sharpton was first in 2003) — was greeted with rousing applause inside Studio 8H.
“People think I am controversial, but the truth is, I am nice guy,” he told the crowd.
The outspoken billionaire kicked off the show by appearing side-by-side with two of his most famous dopplegangers, Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond. ”They don't have my talent, my money or especially my good looks,” he quipped.
But the evening’s best line came from “Seinfeld” creator Larry David, who yelled out “You’re a racist” from off-camera.
When Trump, feigning surprise, asked what was going on, David cracked, "I heard if I yelled that, they'd give me five thousand dollars."
Prior to the broadcast, several hundred protesters congregated outside NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, hoping to convince the network to keep the real estate mogul off its airwaves.
Los Angeles-based activist Luke Montgomery even promised to compensate anyone who disrupted the live telecast.
Trump — one of the leaders for the GOP nomination — appeared in more than half of the evening’s sketches, including a fake 2018 cabinet meeting in which ISIS has been defeated, “Apprentice” villain Omorosa is Secretary of State and the Mexican president arrives with a check to pay for the wall at the U.S. border.
In 40 seasons, only eight politicians have been tapped to host “SNL.”  Trump first hosted the show back in 2004, before he sought public office.
The show draws much of it comedy from politics and has become a popular stop for candidates looking to show a less business-like side of their personalities.
Hillary Clinton attempted to soften her image by turning up as “Val the bartender” in a skit on the program’s season premiere episode in October.
Sarah Palin’s visit in 2008, in which she appeared opposite look-alike (and former-cast member) Tina Fey, drew a record 17 million views.
Trump’s appearance is expected to register even higher when overnight ratings are released later Sunday.

Politically Correct Morons Cartoon

'Slap in the face!': University drops pledge, flag from Veteran's Day service

Patriotic students are infuriated after the Pledge of Allegiance and the Presentation of Colors were removed from Seattle Pacific University’s Veteran’s Day chapel over fears they might offend people.
The university’s Military and Veteran Support Club was outraged by the chaplain’s decision. They called it a “slap in the face” of every soldier who fought, sacrificed and died for our freedoms.
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SPU is a Christian university of the Free Methodist tradition – but the student population includes a diverse group of denominations – including some that ascribe to pacifism.
“The organizers decided not to include the pledge of allegiance and the presentation of colors during the November 10^th chapel, given that there are diversity of views on campus whether such elements should be part of a Christian worship service,” read a statement from the university to Q13 Fox.

“By removing the presentation of the flag and the pledge of allegiance, SPU would not only disrespect students from the military and intelligence community on campus, but also eliminate any reference to the values and freedoms that make it possible for University Ministries to assemble at a chapel in the first place,” student Sarah Martin said.

University Chaplain Bo Lim had originally included both the pledge and the presentation of colors – but reversed his decision over concerns from a handful of students and faculty.
“If the purpose of the service was in part, an opportunity for the entire SPU community to grow in solidarity and support for our military community, I believe including the pledge and flag would work counter to that,” he wrote in an email obtained by Fox News and first reported by The College Fix.
Chaplain Lim pointed out that a large number of the faculty are from Anabaptist traditions.
“This Christian tradition is pacifist, and would object to Christians serving in the military, holding military Christian services, and having military or political symbols in church sanctuaries,” he wrote.
He went on to write in a lengthy letter than he would rather have people focused on supporting the veterans rather than whether or not there was a flag present in the chapel.
“Perhaps some of you have come from communities where there wasn’t a diversity of views on Christians serving in the military, the flag or the pledge,” he wrote. “But such is not SPU.”
Tell that to the Military and Veteran Support Club.
“As several veterans have already noted, their friends did not die for our country so that Americans could be ashamed of or made uncomfortable by their own flag,” they wrote in a Facebook message. https://www.facebook.com/spumvsc/
Sarah Martin, 21, founded the group when she was a freshman. She was also on the original planning committee for the Veteran’s Day Chapel.
“The pledge and the presentation of colors were in our original plans and then they took them out,” she told me.
Miss Martin wrote a powerful message urging the chaplain to reconsider his decision.
“By removing the presentation of the flag and the pledge of allegiance, SPU would not only disrespect students from the military and intelligence community on campus, but also eliminate any reference to the values and freedoms that make it possible for University Ministries to assemble at a chapel in the first place,” she wrote. “Furthermore, you are stripping the chapel of a deeper meaning that glorifies God.”
She went on to lecture the university’s chaplain that pledging and presenting does not mean they are worshipping the flag.
“I believe that eliminating the pledge will rob Christians of the opportunity to give God the glory for the blessings of our freedoms, which were preserved by our veterans and are symbolized by our flag,” she added.
Miss Martin told me in a telephone interview that she’s perplexed over their reasoning to remove the flag and pledge.
“It’s called the Veteran’s Day Chapel,” she said. “No one is forced to participate. No one is forcing them to stand and place their hand over their heart and recite the pledge.”
She said her phone lines have been flooded with students who took offense about the accusations they were not being sensitive to diversity.
“We want them to bring back the flag as they originally planned to do,” she said. “It’s a Veteran’s Day Chapel and if someone is uncomfortable with the flag, it is unlikely they would go to the chapel in the first place.”
Amen, Miss Martin. Preach!

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.

Carson campaign pushes back at published report questioning candidate's West Point claim

Ben Carson's presidential campaign pushed back Friday at a published report questioning a seminal moment in the personal narrative of the Republican candidate -- that the top U.S. general in the Vietnam War had been so impressed during a dinner with the young Carson that he was guaranteed a "full scholarship" to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Academy officials, responding to the POLITICO report Friday, confirmed that there is no record of Carson ever applying to the elite military academy, much less gaining entrance or a scholarship offer.
But in Carson's 1996 memoir "Gifted Hands," he appears to tell a different story: that the young Carson, a 17-year-old top ROTC officer from Detroit, had dined with Gen. William Westmoreland, who was a fresh out of his command in Vietnam, in 1969. He said he was immediately offered a full scholarship by West Point. He has said in the retelling of the story that that he turned down the supposed offer because he wanted to be a doctor. He later graduated from Yale University in 1973.
A West Point spokesperson told POLITICO that that it was "certainly possible" that Carson spoke with the general, and the four-star may have even encouraged the teenager to apply, but the school has a rigorous entry process that would not have allowed Westmoreland to guarantee anyone entry. Furthermore, there are no "full scholarships" to the academy.
According to Westmoreland's schedule, he wasn't even in Detroit at the time.

More on this...

• Jeb Bush: I trust Ben Carson

• Carson's storied past questioned: A media hit-job?

Carson's campaign responded Friday saying that Carson did meet with Westmoreland, and West Point officials told him he could get in based on his high school grades and performance in the ROTC. But in the end, he did not seek the application.
"There are 'Service Connected' nominations for stellar High School ROTC appointments," said campaign manager Barry Bennett. "Again he was the top ROTC student in Detroit.  I would argue strongly that an Appointment is indeed an amazing full scholarship. Having ran several Congressional Offices I am very familiar with the Nomination process."
"Again though his Senior Commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr. Carson he could get in,  Dr. Carson did not seek admission."
The campaign later took issue with POLITICO's allegation that the campaign admitted the claim was false, calling the charge  "irresponsible... an outright lie."
Republican strategists who spoke with FoxNews.com following the revelations Friday said this could be more than just a hiccup for the Carson campaign. The candidate's backstory has come under increased scrutiny as he enjoys the top slot in many of the latest primary polls.
"When you're not a politician and you don't have a voting record, and you are running on your own narrative (like Carson) .. then this is all fair game," said media strategist Pete Snyder.
"I think people realize that people who run for office tend to embellish, but they don't take kindly to fabrication of military service or West Point applications," he added. "This is dangerous ground for Ben Carson."

Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline bid

President Obama announced Friday that he has rejected Canadian energy giant TransCanada's application to build the Keystone XL pipeline, saying that the pipeline was not in the U.S. national interest.
"The State Department has decided the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the interests of the United States. I agree with that decision," Obama said at a White House press conference.
The announcement caps a 7-year saga that has become one of the biggest environmental flashpoints of Obama’s presidency. It comes just days after the State Department refused to agree to TransCanada’s request to suspend the review process on the controversial project, which has seen enormous opposition from environmental groups.
Killing the pipeline allows Obama to claim aggressive action on the environment. That could strengthen his hand as world leaders prepare to finalize a major global climate pact next month in Paris that Obama hopes will be a crowning jewel for his legacy.
Alberta-based TransCanada first applied for Keystone permits in September 2008 -- shortly before Obama was elected. As envisioned, Keystone would snake from Canada's tar sands through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, then connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to specialized refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.

More on this...

• State Department defends Keystone pipeline rejection

Democrats and environmental groups latched onto Keystone as emblematic of the type of dirty fossil fuels that must be phased out. Environmentalists chained themselves to construction equipment and the White House fence in protest.
But Republicans, Canadian politicians and the energy industry touted what they said were profound economic benefits -- thousands of U.S. construction jobs and billions injected into the economy. They argued transporting crude by pipeline would be safer than alternatives like rail, and charged Obama with hypocrisy for complaining about the lack of investment in U.S. infrastructure while obstructing an $8 billion project.

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Jan 10, 2015: Activists hold a rally against government approval of the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline, in front of the White House in Washington. (Reuters)

Obama dismissed the claims that Keystone would be a major job creator.
“If Congress is serious about wanting to create jobs, this is not the way to do it,” he said, before calling for a bipartisan infrastructure plan that he says would make a more significant impact on job creation.
Republicans called the decision disappointing.
"President Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline is a huge mistake, and is the latest reminder that this administration continues to prioritize the demands of radical environmentalists over America's energy security," said. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum condemned the decision in a tweet.
“It [is] ironic that after delaying construction for more than seven years – postponing the jobs, revenues and other benefits that would result from the project – the president now finds it pressing to make a decision just as the company is asking for a pause to resolve any concerns," Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. said in a statement.
Some Democrats, such as Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., praised the decision as a positive step in protecting the environment.
"I want to thank the Obama Administration for protecting the health of the American people and the health of the planet by rejecting the ill-advised Keystone tar sands pipeline, which would have brought the filthiest oil known to humankind into our country in large amounts,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said.
Meanwhile 2016 hopeful Bernie Sanders called support for the pipeline "insane."
"It is insane for anyone to be supporting the excavation and transportation of some of the dirtiest fuel on earth. As someone who has led the opposition to the Keystone pipeline from Day 1, I strongly applaud the president’s decision to kill this project once and for all,” Sanders said.

 

 

Hillary Clinton signed non-disclosure agreement to protect classified info while secretary of state

On January 22nd, 2009, Hillary Clinton signed a Non-Disclosure agreement, or NDA, where she agreed to protect highly classified information, and a failure to do so could result in criminal prosecution.
"I have been advised that any breach of this Agreement may result in my termination of my access to SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) and removal from a position of special confidence,"  the NDA reads.
"I have been advised that any authorized disclosure of SCI by me may constitute violations of United States criminal laws, including provisions of Sections 793, 794, 798 and 952, Title 18 United States Code..."  These are provisions of the Espionage Act, and as Fox recently reported, 18 USC 793 subsection (f) is of special interest to the FBI investigation as it includes "gross negligence" in the handling of national defense information.
The NDA was first obtained through a federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, or CEI, which says on its website that it is a "...non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty."
The NDA signed by Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State is significant because the State Department has never publicly acknowledged that she signed documents, confirming she was "advised that the unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention, or negligent handling" of top secret material was a punishable offense.  
The use of a private server for government business, on its face, is a clear violation of the NDA agreement.
The NDA goes on to say -- "I have been advised that the unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention, or negligent handling of SCI by me could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to advantage by foreign nationals."
This summer the intelligence community's inspector general or ICIG reviewed a random sample from Clinton's server used for government business. The rules are straight forward:  the agencies that obtain the intelligence have final say on classification matters, and the affected agencies confirmed to the ICIG that four emails contained classified information that did not originate with the State Department.  Two of the emails contained Top Secret/SCI material -- the most highly classified. "Sensitive Compartmented" material has limited access, and requires security clearance holders to sign additional paper work, "to be read in, and off" the project. This second NDA is designed to reinforce how important it is to protect the information as well as sources and methods.
On Friday, based on anonymous sourcing, Politico reported that "the U.S. intelligence community has retreated from claims that two emails in Hillary Clinton’s private account contained top-secret information,"
A spokeswoman for the ICIG, Andrea. G. Williams, told Fox the classification had not changed, and no formal notification had been received by her office.  The State Department requested a second review of the emails by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who oversees the 17 agencies. A statement was expected Friday from the ODNI, that no such determination had been made and the review was ongoing.
The Clinton campaign seemed quick to seize on the Politico report, in light of the now public NDAs.   A second NDA for classified information, not specific to special programs, signed by Mrs. Clinton also became public.
Clinton aides had countered the NDA by referring to the Politico report.
The NDAs played a significant role in the prosecution of former CIA Director David Petraeus for wrongly providing highly classified information to his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell.  Petraeus, like Clinton, signed NDAs and a statement of fact filed in his case with the federal court stated that his "criminal conduct" was based on violations of the NDAs signed with the Defense Department and CIA.