Another Democrat suggests racism within GOP, drawing another sharp response

In this Sept. 3, 2013 file photo, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP/File

New York Rep. Steve Israel said Sunday a significant part of the Republican Party is “animated by racism,” marking the third time in recent days that a leading Democrat has appeared to make race an issue and drawn a sharp response from Republicans.
Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose major role is the get his House members re-elected, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that not all of his Republican colleagues are racist.
“Not all of them, of course not,” he said. “But to a significant extent, the Republican base does have elements that are animated by racism.”
Israel made his comments after Attorney General Eric Holder testified Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, then suggested the next day at a forum on civil rights that the past five years in Washington have been marked by "unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive adversity."
"If you don't believe that … you look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee," Holder continued.
The comment drew a sharp response from House Speaker John Boehner, who on Thursday told reporters: “There's no issue of race here. The frustration is that the American people have not been told the truth about what happened at the IRS.
“The American people have not been told the truth about what happened in Fast and Furious. The administration has not told the American people the truth about Benghazi. We've been going through all of these hearings, having to hold people in contempt because they've made it impossible to get to the documents. They have not been forthcoming.”
On Sunday, Washington Republicans suggested Democrats, at risk in November of losing more House seats and their control of the Senate, in large part over problems with ObamaCare, are trying to change the topic of public discussion.
“Dems are desperate to try to discredit conservatives because they don’t have the facts on their side,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement. “Holder tried to play the same racism card. … This must be the Dems’ latest strategy to distract from ObamaCare. Like their previous attempts, though, this one won’t work either.”
On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to suggest race is playing a part in why congressional Republicans do not want to act on comprehensive immigration reform.
“I think race has something to do with the fact that they’re not bringing up an immigration bill,” the California Democrat said. “I’ve heard them say to the Irish, ‘If it were just you, this would be easy.’ ”

Federal agency vows to continue legal action after ending Nevada ranch standoff

(Bailey) Everyone knows that the battle will never be over, as there's nothing more sure in this world then death and taxes. 
The Bureau of Land Management vowed Saturday that it would continue its legal fight to remove illegal cattle from a rural Nevada range after ending a tense weeklong standoff with a rancher and his supporters.
"After 20 years and multiple court orders to remove the trespass cattle, [rancher Cliven] Bundy owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million. The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially," a statement from the bureau said. "We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service work to end the operation in an orderly manner."
The BLM also announced that it was wrapping up its month-long operation to seize the 900 cattle roaming on federally owned land approximately 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas and would release the 400 head of Bundy's cattle it had already seized "in order to avoid violence and help restore order."  
"Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public," the statement read.," the statement read.
Bureau officials had dismantled designated protest areas supporting Bundy, who they say refuses to comply with the "same laws that 16,000 public land ranchers do every year."
A group of about 1,000 supporting Bundy cheered and sang "The Star Spangled Banner" when BLM made its announcement.
The standoff at the ranch became increasingly tense the longer it lasted, prompting elected officials in several states to weigh in, militia members to mobilize and federal land managers to reshape elements of the operation. The Las Vegas Sun reported that some protesters were carrying handguns and rifles, but there were no reports of shots fired or injuries
The roundup started last Saturday after the BLM and National Park Service shut down an area half the size of Delaware to let cowhands using helicopters and vehicles gather about 900 cattle that officials say are trespassing.
Bundy, 67, and his large family cast their resistance to the roundup as a constitutional stand. He says he doesn't recognize federal authority over state land.
The dispute that triggered the roundup dates to 1993, when the BLM cited concern for the federally protected tortoise. The agency later revoked Bundy's grazing rights.
Bundy claimed ancestral rights to graze his cattle on lands his Mormon family settled in the 19th century. He stopped paying grazing fees and disregarded several court orders to remove his animals.
BLM officials, however, say Bundy owes more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees.
BLM faced criticism when police used stun guns on one of Bundy's adult sons during a Wednesday confrontation on a state highway near the Bundy melon farm in the Gold Butte area.
Video of that confrontation spread on the Internet, along with blog commentary claiming excessive government force and calls to arms from self-described militia leaders. Some have invoked references to deadly confrontations with federal authorities, including a siege of a ranch home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and the fiery destruction of a religious compound near Waco, Texas, that killed 76 people in 1993.
"Our mission here is to protect the protestors and the American citizens from the violence that the federal government is dishing out,” Jim Landy, a member of the West Mountain Rangers, who made the journey from Montana to Nevada, told Fox News Channel. “People here are scared."
Arizona state Rep. Bob Thorpe of Flagstaff said he and state legislators weren't arguing whether Bundy broke laws or violated grazing agreements. Thorpe said the Arizona lawmakers were upset the BLM initially restricted protesters to so-called free speech zones.
Sen. Dean Heller and Gov. Brian Sandoval, both Republicans, have also said they were upset with the way the BLM was conducting the roundup. After the areas were removed Thursday, Sandoval issued a new statement.
"Although tensions remain high, escalation of current events could have negative, long lasting consequences that can be avoided," it said.
Amy Lueders, BLM state director in Nevada, said Friday that two protesters were detained, cited for failure to comply with officers at a barricade on Thursday and released.
That brought the number of arrests to three. Bundy's son, Dave Bundy, was arrested Sunday on State Route 170 and released Monday with citations accusing him of refusing to disperse and resisting arrest.
Lueders said 380 cows were collected by Thursday. She declined to provide a cost estimate for the herding operation.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche, Matt Finn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Asian American group tries to reconnect with GOP, citing shared core values

FILE: 2013:REUTERS

A group of Asian Americans is starting a grassroots effort to garner support for the Republican Party and its candidates, saying the GOP most closely aligns with their core values including family, education and entrepreneurship.
The group, the Asian Republican Coalition, is co-founded by international investment banker John Ying, who during the 2012 presidential election cycle served on the Republican National Finance Committee.
“We need a forum, and this first step will go a long way,” Ying told FoxNews.com earlier this week.
He hopes the effort, which will include a May 6 kickoff event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., will provide a “friendly front door” for both potential voters and Republican lawmakers and officials.
While much of the Republican Party’s focus has recently been to trying to connect with Hispanic voters, considering Democratic President Obama won 71 percent of their vote in his re-election victory, Asians are the country’s fastest-growing ethnic group, according to a 2012 U.S. Census report.
However, over the past three presidential election cycles, Asians have increasingly voted Democrat: 73 percent for Obama compared to 26 percent for GOP nominee Mitt Romney in 2012; 62 percent for Obama compared to 35 percent for GOP nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2008; and 56 percent for Democratic nominee John Kerry compared to 44 percent for GOP winner George W. Bush in 2004.
“How did the Republican Party lose us?” Ying asks.
Part of the problem, he concedes, is that Asian Americans have been “shy” about engaging in this country’s political process and as a race is a “complex,” non-homogenous group speaking lots of different languages.
Though the Asian population in the United States is estimated at roughly 18.9 million, indeed their turnout for presidential election cycles is relatively low.
Just 3 percent voted in 2012, compared to 72 percent for whites, 13 percent for blacks and 10 percent for Latinos. And Asian turnout was a mere 2 percent in the previous two presidential cycles.
With group co-founder Thomas Britt, who specializes in mergers and acquisitions with China, Ying and his group have talked with the Republican National Committee and recently made the rounds on Capitol Hill, trying to connect and reconnect with Republican lawmakers.
"No question, the Asian-American community is one of the fastest growing demographic groups,” said Nevada GOP Sen. Dean Heller. “It is critical that the men and women of this community have their voices heard in the upcoming elections. The ARC will play an important role in ensuring that this community is well represented."
Ying made clear his group is “obviously interested in the 2014 and 2016 elections” but emphasized members, at least for now, want to focus only on “broader issues.”
“We’re step-by-step type of people,” he said.
Ying repeatedly says the group is focused on family, education, entrepreneurship, personal freedom and “merit- and work-ethic driven opportunity.
The group -- a 501 (c) 4 tax-exempt nonprofit -- is also trying to make clear it is open to all Americans, including those who might be married to an Asian or do business in Asian markets.
“We want to broaden the footprint beyond bloodlines,” Ying said.

Rancher Prevails in 'New Ruby Ridge' Battle as Feds Back Down

 The Bureau of Land Management said Saturday it will stop the roundup of cattle owned by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.

The BLM says the animals have been illegally grazing on public lands for 20 years.

The BLM announcement came a after rangers started gathering the animals from land near Gold Butte, Nev.

The agency says it is concerned about the safety of its employees and the public.

Earlier this week, BLM officers and supporters of the Bundy family were involved in a scuffle. Cliven Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, was shot with a stun gun twice by federal agents. Another woman said she was thrown to the ground by an officer.

With Bundy supporters pouring in from around the country, safety concerns began to grow.

BLM said it would not enforce a court order to remove the cattle and was pulling out of the area.

"Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public," BLM Director Neil Kornze said, reports ABC News.

"We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service work to end the operation in an orderly manner," he said.

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie brokered a deal to end the roundup, reports CBS News Las Vegas.

Tea party groups and Libertarians had joined in the widening battle in recent days.

Elected officials in states ranging from Arizona to Washington were rushing to Nevada on Thursday night after watching a startling video of an angry clash between protesters, including private militias, and U.S. Bureau of Land Management rangers, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The 10-minute video showed Bundy's son Ammon being tasered and Cliven's sister Margaret Bundy-Houston, a cancer survivor, being tackled to the ground by a ranger.

"Watching that video last night created a visceral reaction in me," said Arizona Rep. Kelly Townsend, a tea party Republican who drove from Phoenix to take part in a protest rally in Bunkerville near Bundy's 160-acre ranch. "It sounds dramatic, but it reminded me of Tiananmen Square. I don't recognize my country at this point."
Townsend is associated with a patriot group known as the Oath Keepers, which advocates that its members, mostly current and former U.S. military personnel and law enforcement officials, disobey any orders that they are given if they believe they violate the Constitution.

The Arizona lawmaker told the Review-Journal that Bundy "may be in the wrong as far as the law is concerned," but the manner in which the roundup is being handled is "un-American."

The video showed law enforcement officers holding yellow tasers and barking dogs as BLM trucks involved in rounding-up Bundy's cattle attempted to drive through State Route 170 into Bunkerville

Nevada Republican Assemblywoman Michele Fiore called the footage "horrifying," and said that she had been twice to the protest site in a show of support, as well as to "protect our Nevadans and keep the peace."

Fiore said, "I'm highly offended by the feds coming in as aggressively as they have.
But officials for the BLM have claimed that the high level of security is necessary due to the ongoing violent threats from the Bundy clan and their supporters."

BLM has shut down a 1,200-square-mile area while hired cowboys round up 900 cattle "trespassing on federal land that has been deemed a protected habitat for an endangered desert tortoise.

Although federal authorities claim that Bundy has been illegally allowing his cattle to graze on 600,000 acres of federal property for 20 years, the rancher says the land belongs to the state, and it's been used by his family to graze cattle since the late 1800s.

Bundy has compared the protest to the 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and the 1993 raid on David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, which ended with dozens of deaths.

"Mr. Bundy is breaking the law, and he has been breaking the law for 20 years," said BLM spokeswoman Amy Lueders. "He owes the taxpayers of the United States over $1 million."

BLM rangers had rounded up more than 350 head of Bundy's cattle by Thursday.

The Oath Keepers' Facebook page instructed members planning to join the protest to bring cameras and "film everything but not to wear military camouflage or openly carry rifles," according to the Review-Journal.

"Any rifles people may have with them need to stay in the vehicles," the post said.

Fearing that the showdown could turn into an even more dangerous situation, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval warned, "Although tensions remain high, escalation of current events could have negative, long-lasting consequences that can be avoided."

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White House: No visa for Iran's UN ambassador pick

The White House announced Friday that the U.S. will not issue a visa to Iran's choice for U.N. ambassador, over concerns about his involvement in the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.
The decision comes after Congress earlier this week approved a bill that would bar Hamid Abutalebi from stepping on U.S. soil. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the White House is reviewing that legislation but announced that Abutalebi would be barred anyway.
"We have informed the United Nations and Iran that we will not issue a visa to Mr. Abutalebi," Carney said. "We certainly share the intent of the bill passed by Congress as we have already told the U.N. and Iran that we will not issue a visa."
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it was "not a viable nomination."
Denying visas to U.N. ambassadorial nominees or to foreign heads of state who want to attend United Nations events in the United States is rare, if not unprecedented.
American officials, though, have objected to the selection of Abutalebi because of his alleged participation in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in the 1979 incident. The concerns became a rare point of bipartisan agreement in Congress. The House unanimously approved the legislation on Thursday by voice vote, four days after a similar vote in the Senate.
Former American hostage Barry Rosen told Fox News on Friday that the decision to bar Iran's ambassadorial pick is a "great victory for America."
"There are special moments in American political life when grassroots activism and a bipartisan Congressional action moves an Administration to do the right thing. This is one of those rare moments in the history of the United States," he said.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who sponsored the measure in the Senate, said Friday he appreciates the president "doing the right thing" and blocking the ambassador from the U.S.
"I think that's a real moment of clarity," Cruz told Fox News, in describing the bipartisan agreement on the issue.
Earlier this week, Cruz called the nomination "a deliberate and unambiguous insult to the United States."
The Iranian government, reacting late Friday, objected to the visa denial. The Iranian Mission to the U.N. said: "It is a regrettable decision by the US Administration which is in contravention of international law, the obligation of the host country and the inherent right of sovereign member states to designate their representatives to the United Nations."
The Iranian Mission to the United Nations will be run by Deputy Permanent Representative and Charge d'Affairs Ambassador Hossein Dehghani while the dispute is settled.
The dispute comes amid nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers.
U.S. immigration law allows broad rejection of visas to foreigners and, in many cases, officials do not have to give an explicit reason for why other than to deem the applicant a threat to national security or American policy.
The law bars foreigners whose entry or activity in the U.S. would "have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
It also bars people who have engaged in terrorist activity, which the law defines as including seizing and detaining others; threatening to kill, injure or continue to detain them; and violent attacks on internationally protected persons such as diplomats and other agents of the U.S. government.
Iranian opposition leaders heralded the decision on Friday.
"This decision is prudent and should serve as an example for other countries not to allow Iranian regime's terrorists disguised as diplomats into their territory," said Soona Samsami, the U.S. representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, describing Abutalebi as a "terror mastermind."
Fox News' Eric Shawn, Jonathan Wachtel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Union warns House Democrats of retaliation for opposing Keystone XL

The Keystone Oil Pipeline is pictured under construction in North Dakota.Reuters

One of the nation's leading building trades unions is stepping up pressure on House Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, calling on union members in 27 congressional districts to punish their representative in the midterm election.
A letter distributed by the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) to the 27 districts calls for union members to make sure their representative "feels the power and the fury of LIUNA this November," The Hill reported.
"Your member of Congress is trying to destroy job opportunities for our LIUNA brothers and sisters," read the letter signed by Terry O'Sullivan, the general president of LIUNA, and obtained by The Hill on Friday. 
"For every action, there is a reaction, and our reaction to this frontal assault on our way of life needs to be loud and clear. If you do not stand with us, we sure as hell will not stand with you," O'Sullivan wrote, citing the jobs Keystone would create.
The House members being targeted by the union include Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J.; Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.; Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.; and Tim Ryan, D-Ohio. All of the representatives signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry in March urging him to reject the pipeline.
The letter to union members asks them to remember that "unemployed construction workers desperately need the work" generated by Keystone XL, calling it a "lifeline" for thousands of members, according to The Hill. 
LIUNA said it supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but not at the cost of jobs, according to the report. 
"The livelihoods of LIUNA members are too important for our union to continue ignoring the actions of supposed ‘friends’ who stand in the way of jobs that enable our proud members to provide for themselves and their families," read a letter to Rep. Jan Schakowksy, D-Ill.
The Republican-controlled House has voted several times to approve the $5.4 billion pipeline, which has support from a majority of senators. 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blocked a vote last week on a Republican proposal that would have allowed construction of the pipeline and made numerous changes in the nation's health care law. GOP lawmakers say all of the proposals would help create jobs.
Eleven Senate Democrats, including six who face contested races this year, sent a letter to President Obama on Thursday, urging him to approve Keystone by the end of May.
The five-year review of the Canada-to-Texas pipeline has been "exhaustive in its time, breadth and scope" and has taken longer than reasonably justified, the senators wrote to the president. 
Approval of the pipeline is needed to ensure pipeline operator TransCanada does not miss another construction season, the senators' letter said.
Six of the Democrats who signed the letter face challenges this year: Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, John Walsh of Montana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Warner of Virginia.
The Keystone XL pipeline has emerged as an election-year dilemma for Democrats.
Wealthy party donors are funding candidates who oppose the project — a high-profile symbol of the political debate over climate change. But some of the party's most vulnerable incumbents are pipeline boosters, including the six who signed the letter Thursday.
Several former Obama administration officials, including ex-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and former national security adviser James Jones, have called on Obama to approve the pipeline. Jones told Congress last month that approval would send Russian President Vladimir Putin a message that "international bullies" can't use energy security as a weapon.
Environmental groups and some top Democratic donors oppose the pipeline, saying it would carry "dirty oil" that contributes to global warming. They also worry about possible spills. 
Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmentalist, has vowed to spend $100 million —$50 million of his own money and $50 million from other donors — to make climate change a top-tier issue in the 2014 elections. Opposition to Keystone XL is a significant part of that effort.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday that the review of the pipeline "needs to run its appropriate course without interference from the White House or Congress." 
The State Department is reviewing the project "and when there's a decision to be announced, it will be announced," Carney said. The State Department has authority over the project because it crosses a U.S. border.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.