Debate moderator apologizes for accusing Scott Brown of botching NH geography

A debate moderator apologized to Republican New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown Thursday night after accusing him on-air of botching his state geography -- though Brown technically was correct. 
The meandering conversation about New Hampshire regions started after WMUR reporter James Pindell asked Brown at the debate Thursday about what is going "right" and "wrong" in the economy of Sullivan County, which hugs the western edge of New Hampshire. 
Scott, who used to represent Massachusetts in the Senate, has faced "carpetbagger" accusations throughout his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. In response to Pindell's question, Brown launched into a general answer about different regions of the state. 
"Geography plays a role along the southern border. We have more jobs, we have more opportunity, infrastructure, and other opportunities up north are difficult," he said. "One of the biggest opportunities is tourism. One of the biggest opportunities are ski areas and trails for snowmobiles -- I support those efforts." 
Pindell then interrupted to remind Brown they were talking about Sullivan County. "I think you were talking about the North Country," he said. 
Brown responded: "I'm talking about any place past Concord, actually, and the challenges of our state." 
This is where the disagreement arose. After Brown listed several "challenges," Pindell interrupted again, his voice raised. 
"Sullivan County is west of Concord," he said. "It's not north of Concord, Senator Brown. So what do you see as going well and what's not going well there?" 
Brown maintained that "the challenges are the same in every county in our state." 
Pindell then pitched to Shaheen, with the introduction, "Of course you've been that county's governor and senator for 12 years."
Brown's campaign reportedly claimed afterward that the GOP candidate was referring to Mount Sunapee, a ski resort in Sullivan County he had visited. 
Though New Hampshire Democrats seized on the exchange to mock Brown, Pindell later acknowledged that, while Sullivan County is west of Concord, much of it also lies north of the capital. 
Pindell also went on air to apologize. 
"I said that Sullivan County was west of Concord, not north of Concord. The truth is, it's both. So on this point, Scott Brown was right, I was wrong, and I apologize to Scott Brown and to both campaigns," he said. The incident was reminiscent of an exchange during a 2012 presidential debate where CNN's Candy Crowley corrected Mitt Romney on a point about Benghazi, though the matter was in dispute.

Governor's race in 'deep-blue' Maryland now among tightest, garnering big money and interest

The campaign for Maryland GOP gubernatorial nominee Larry Hogan earlier this week enthusiastically predicted that a win Tuesday would be the surprise, upset victory of the midterm elections.
And it might well be correct.
Left off essentially everybody’s list of hot governors’ races, the tightening Maryland contest has now captured the national spotlight with big outside money and A-list politicians coming in to close the deal for Hogan or Democratic nominee Anthony Brown, who has served eight years as Gov. Martin O’Malley’s lieutenant governor.
That Hogan, a businessman and son of a former congressman, would even be close this late is a surprise.
Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 in Maryland. And only two Republicans have held the governor’s office the past four decades.
But a sluggish local economy and years of tax increases by the O’Malley administration -- including an infamous “rain water tax" -- appears to have voters looking for a change.
Brown had led the race by double digits from the start. But recent polls -- including one by The Baltimore Sun in mid-October that indicated Brown ahead by just 7 percentage points -- have shown his lead starting to slip.
However, the turning point seemed to occur after a Republican-sponsored poll released Monday showed Hogan trailing Brown by just 2 percentage points, 46-to-44 percent.
“It’s a little crazy right now, but we believe everything is now breaking our way,” Hogan said Wednesday from the campaign trail. “The timing is perfect. The momentum is there for Democrats and independents. There’s a full-scale tax revolt in deep-blue Maryland.”
Though the poll was commissioned by the Hogan campaign, pollsters, Democrats, Republicans and essentially everybody else with an interest in the midterms took notice.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, arrived Tuesday in Maryland, for his third visit of the cycle, and was followed two days later by Hillary Clinton, whose many titles now include one of the most influential Democrats on the campaign trail.
And within the past four days, two of Washington’s most respected, nonpartisan pollsters have changed their handicap of the race to show Brown on less-sure footing.
On Friday, the Cook Political Report moved the race into its “tossup” category. And on Wednesday, the Rothenberg Political Report shifted the race for Democrats from “favored” to the lesser “lean.” 
Hogan spokesman Adam Dubitsky suggests Maryland Democrats have taken Hogan too lightly, pointing out that Brown, a Harvard law school graduate who served in Iraq, said during his tough primary race that winning the general election would just be “a little bit of a mole hill.”
The Brown campaign did not return calls seeking comment. However, campaign spokesman Justin Schall has downplayed the notion that the national attention suggests Brown is fading.
"That is Republicans' wishful thinking," he told The Sun.
The last Republican to win the Maryland governorship was Robert Ehrlich in 2002. He was preceded by Spiro Agnew in 1967. Ehrlich was defeated in 2006 by O’Malley, who must leave as a result of term limits and appears to be strongly considering a run for president in 2016.
President Obama, who took nearly 62 percent of the Maryland vote in 2012, has also campaigned for Brown.
The RNC and its counterpart, the Democratic Governors Association, will reportedly spend $1.5 million collectively on TV ads.
And a political action committee for former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged to spend $500,000 on its own TV ads, to hammer Hogan’s National Rifle Association endorsement.
While national political reporters largely saw Brown’s biggest liability as the failed rollout of the state’s ObamaCare exchange that Brown oversaw, state Republicans have clearly made the race about taxes and have tried to convince Marylanders that a vote for Brown is a vote for a third term of tax increases.
“It’s not fear of raising taxes,” said Rob Carter, former finance chairman for the Maryland Republican Party. “It’s an absolute certainty.”
O’Malley has signed into law 40 new taxes while in office, according to Forbes.com.
He signed the rain water tax bill  in 2012, in response to an Environmental Protection Agency mandate on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. Property owners in 10 jurisdiction including Baltimore City now pay an annual fee that ranges from rough $26 to $256.
“Anthony Brown means eight more years of Martin O’Malley,” Carter said. “They are two peas in a pod.” 

Republicans cheer Tahmooressi's release, question Obama's role

Republicans on Saturday welcomed the news of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi being released from a Mexico prison and the efforts by GOP congressmen to help broker a deal but questioned whether the Obama administration did enough.
“President Obama still isn’t using all of the tools and levers that we have as the world’s lone super power, whether it is as simple as getting Sgt. Tahmooressi released from custody to defending our interests or protecting our allies in the Middle East,” Arkansas GOP Rep. Tom Cotton told Fox News.
Cotton, who is now running for Senate, wrote Obama asking him to intervene.  
A Mexican judge on Friday ordered Tahmooressi’s immediate release, after he spent seven months behind bars for crossing the border with loaded guns.
The judge said Tahmooressi should be freed because of his mental state. But he did not make a determination on the illegal-arms charges against the Afghanistan veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a Mexican official who had knowledge of the ruling but was not authorized to give his name.
California GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told The Washington Times that Obama was “AWOL” throughout the process.
Rohrabacher said he, fellow California GOP Rep. Ed Royce, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona GOP Matt Salmon fought for Tahmooressi’s release after President Obama did not.
“The president, who is also the commander in chief, didn’t do his job,” Rohrabacher told the newspaper. “There is a lack of concern for this man, for this American hero who served our country. As commander in chief he showed a total disdain and non-interest in an American hero who served us in Afghanistan and a total disregard for the fact that he was suffering.”
Tahmooressi has said he took a wrong turn on a California freeway that funneled him into a Tijuana port of entry with no way to turn back.
"It is with an overwhelming and humbling feeling of relief that we confirm that Andrew was released today after spending 214 days in Mexican Jail," his family said in a statement.
Former 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called the announcement of Tahmooressi’s release “wonderful news.”
But Palin also said she was disappointed to hear reports that the White House “never did fight” for his freedom.
“If true, then President Obama once again broke that sacred commitment to never leave an American behind,” she said on her Facebook page. “If I'm wrong on this, I'll be more than happy to acknowledge the president's efforts to see an honored vet set free.”
Republican and Democratic politicians had held talks with Mexican authorities to urge his release. A U.S. congressional committee also held a public hearing to pressure Mexico to free him.
Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was "elated" by the news and that Tahmooressi’s PTSD will be treated by specialists in the United States.
"As I said after visiting Andrew in the Mexican jail, he needs to come home to the United States to be with his mother, Jill, and the support network of friends I know to be standing by to help him,” Royce said.
Richardson, who grew up in Mexico and has negotiated on a range of international issues, said he met with Tahmooressi in jail in the border city of Tecate, and he had talked to Mexican officials to urge them to release him on humanitarian grounds.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., also applauded his release.
"As a mother, my heart is with Jill Tahmooressi tonight and I can only imagine the many emotions she must be experiencing, namely the relief in knowing her son is coming home and that they will soon be reunited.”
Mexican authorities, however, had made clear that they would not be influenced by politics and that the matter was in the hands of its courts.
The Mexico Embassy said the judge’s rule was the correct legal decision but disputed allegations that U.S. officials were blocked from seeing Tahmooressi.
“From the first moment of his arrest up until his release, U.S. consular officials had access to him,” the embassy said in a statement.
In Mexico, possession of weapons restricted for use by the Army is a federal crime, and the country has been tightening up its border checks to stop the flow of US weapons that have been used by drug cartels.
His attorney, Fernando Benitez, had pushed for the 26-year-old Florida man to be released because Mexico has no experience in treating combat-related PTSD, even in its own soldiers.
Benitez had argued that Tahmooressi carries loaded guns with him because his weapons, which were bought legally in the U.S., make him feel safer. He added that the veteran is often distracted, which could have contributed to him becoming lost.
Still, Mexican prosecutors maintained Tahmooressi broke the law.
Tahmooressi was carrying in his truck a rifle, shotgun, pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
After being jailed in Tijuana, Tahmooressi's mother said, he tried to kill himself by cutting his neck with a shard from a light bulb in his cell because the guards and inmates threatened to rape, torture and kill him and he feared she would be in danger.
He was transferred to another prison, where a pastor visited him regularly and the Mexican government says he was under medical observation.
But a psychiatrist hired by Mexican prosecutors to examine the Afghanistan veteran agreed with the defense that he should get PTSD treatment in the United States, noting in a Sept. 30 report that Tahmooressi, who now serves in the Marine reserve, feels like he is constantly in danger.
Tahmooressi did not admit wrongdoing, and he still maintains his innocence, his attorney said.
His mother has said her son's time in a Mexican jail has been worse than his two tours in Afghanistan.
Tahmooressi left Florida for San Diego in January to get help after dropping out of college, unable to concentrate or sleep, his mother said.
The case marks one of the first times Mexico made a ruling on PTSD — though the psychological wound is increasingly used in U.S. courts, especially in arguing for reduced sentences.

Chicken Cartoon

Leak week: Obama team shows signs of strain as anonymous officials take gripes to media

The Three Stooges.

WASHINGTON –  The White House ship is springing some leaks. 
Trouble-making personnel inside the Obama administration have taken to the press at a steady clip in recent days to badmouth senior officials, as well as a key American ally. And as President Obama enters his seventh year in office, the whispers and potshots are running the risk of undermining the once-cohesive image of the "no drama Obama" team. 
Whether it's a few leaky apples or the sign of a larger morale problem is unclear. But several stories with sharp-edged quotes attributed to unnamed administration officials have culminated in an embarrassing week for the White House -- complete with plenty of backpedaling and clarifications to assert a polished narrative that all is well. 
But the tarnish may be showing. 
Frustrated officials have started to air their grievances on everything from the current relationship between the U.S. and Israel to the military response in Syria. 
The latest batch of stories started on Monday, when The Atlantic magazine quoted an anonymous official describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “chickenshit.” The comment follows weeks of heated exchanges between Netanyahu’s government and Washington over disputed settlement-building.
“The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” the official was quoted as saying. 
The article caused a furor, as Republicans demanded accountability for the anonymous insult to America's ally. White House and State Department officials insisted the remark does not reflect the administration's views, and White House officials reportedly were calling lawmakers to hammer home that point. 
Not everyone was buying the administration's contrite tone. Fox News contributor Judith Miller suggested that comment was "authorized," to "send a message to Israel." 
But other comments clearly were not green-lighted by the White House. In the latest episode, ticked-off military officials told The Daily Beast they were frustrated by the tight constraints the White House is placing on them in the war against the Islamic State in Syria. 
Disgruntled officers and civilian Pentagon leaders reportedly claimed that National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who is calling much of the shots on U.S. operations in Syria, is “obsessed with the tiniest of details” and referred to the process as “manic.” 
The White House reportedly has instructed the military to keep the war contained within policy limits which include restrictions on which rebels can be trained to fight and what their roles will be in the field. The sources said Rice’s micro-managing of basic operational details is tying their hands and holding up progress. 
Earlier, on Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also was a critic of the White House strategy in Syria. Hagel recently wrote a memo to Rice warning that the current strategy was too unfocused and didn’t clearly address U.S. intentions and how it relates to Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, the Times reported. 
Hagel did not back off his comments on Thursday, saying, “We owe the president and we owe the National Security Council our best thinking on this. And it has to be honest and it has to be direct.” 
The perception of a harmonious Cabinet was further dented following another claim in the Times article that officials routinely joked Secretary of State John Kerry is like the astronaut Sandra Bullock plays in the movie “Gravity,” and that he’s “somersaulting through space, un-tethered from the White House.” 
The article seemed to suggest that Obama’s once tight-knit circle of confidants has come apart in recent months as more and more staff members resign or retire. Personnel shakeups have led some to question the effectiveness of the president’s crisis-management teams. 
The comments prompted Earnest and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to come to Kerry’s defense. Sort of.
“Those of us working every day at [the] White House aren’t distracted by sometimes colorful, sometimes problematic, and in the case of Sandra Bullock, sometimes amusing comments,” Earnest told reporters. 
McDonough also defended Obama’s chief diplomat, telling Bloomberg Television “that picture of Secretary Kerry is not what I witness.” He added that Obama and Kerry meet regularly and described the relationship as “very solid.”
McDonough also refuted rumors of a rift between Kerry and Rice, insisting they have a collaborative relationship. 
Whether the administration is hunting down the officials quoted remains to be seen. Earnest gave no indication there would be a vigorous hunt for the official behind the Netanyahu dig. 
The shots aren't just coming from inside the administration, either. On a lighter note, another influential figure badmouthed the president this week -- Michael Jordan. 
When asked about the president’s golf game during a recent interview Jordan said, “I’ve never played with Obama, but I would.” He added, “I’d take him out. He’s a hack and I’d be all day playing with him … I never said he wasn’t a great politician. I’m just saying he’s a shi--y golfer.”

License, ID card policies stir concerns over illegal immigrants voting

Thank You Mr. Obama! This is how the Democrats win, with non-citizens.

As more states begin providing illegal immigrants and their children with driver's licenses and ID cards, officials are concerned some also are registering to vote -- some by mistake, and others on purpose. 
The problem came to light recently in North Carolina, which compared its voter rolls against a federal immigration database. The cross-check of 10,000 voters found 1,425 likely non-citizen voters, including 109 illegal immigrants or so-called "Dreamers." Almost 10 percent registered to vote when getting their driver's license. But election officials say the problem is nationwide. 
"In terms of a check and balance that would prevent an individual who is a non U.S. citizen from registering to vote, that doesn't exist. There's absolutely nothing stopping them," said Neal Kelley, Orange County registrar of voters and chairman of the California Association of Election Officials.
The problem, officials say, dates back to the 1993 federal Motor Voter Act, which requires states to offer residents the ability to register to vote when they obtain a driver's license or ID card. In some states, the driver's license and voter registration application are on the same form, and the applicant simply signs. In small print, the form says applicants acknowledge they are U.S. citizens. In other states, voter registration is a separate form and applicants check a box. In either case, once signed, the forms are automatically sent to the county or state registrar of voters, and the name is added to voter rolls. 
State DMV officials are not required to authenticate citizenship.
"They're asked to check a box that they're a U.S. citizen, but that's not good enough," said Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state. "We have so many aliens on our voter rolls who check that box -- either because they're trying to break the law or because they didn't know exactly what they were doing." 
There are two ways to eliminate or slow the problem. While only U.S. citizens can vote, only four states require proof before registering: Kansas, Arizona, Georgia and Alabama. States can also compare voter rolls to a federal immigration database known as SAVE, or the Systemic Alien Verification System for Entitlements. Four states tried, but the ACLU and others sued, stopping Virginia, Iowa and Florida from purging voter rolls of non-citizens.
"We want the public to understand that people are not being proactive in dealing with this massive problem," said Jay DeLancy, director of the North Carolina Voter Integrity Project. "Any state that has DACA licenses, any state that offers any sort of driver's licenses to people who are not citizens has the problem."
The ACLU claims the federal immigration database isn't perfect and could disenfranchise voters.
Under the National Voter Registration Act, states are required to remove from their registration lists ineligible voters. But U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to enforce the statute. Not a single such lawsuit has been filed since the beginning of the Obama administration, according to author John Fund. 
"This is such a huge problem," Kobach said. "And once the aliens get on the voter rolls, solutions don't solve the problem. If you want to work with the federal government, they’re going to make you jump through a whole bunch of hoops."
Use of the SAVE database, while not perfect, isn't cheap. Each name cross checked costs a state or county 50 cents.
In Maryland, a voter integrity group obtained a list of residents who were removed from jury duty because they were non-citizens. Among them, 509 were also registered to vote. The group, Virginia Voters Alliance, claims up to 7 percent of Maryland's registered voters could be non-citizens.
"Yes that can occur," said Kelley. "Whether they're a felon on parole or a non-U.S. citizen or somebody else who may be ineligible to register to vote, they can end up on the rolls."

ISIS militants line up, kill 50 tribesmen and women in Iraq town

BAGHDAD –  Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen and women in Iraq's Anbar province, officials said Saturday, the latest mass killing committed by the group.
The shooting happened late Friday in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of the provincial capital of Ramadi, Anbar councilman Faleh al-Issawi said.
Militants accused men and women of the Al Bu Nimr tribe of retaliating against them after being displaced from their homes when the group seized the Anbar town of Hit last month, al-Issawi said.
"These killings are taking place almost on a daily basis now in the areas under the control of the Islamic State group and they will continue unless this terrorist group is stopped," al-Issawi told The Associated Press.
An official in the Anbar governor's office confirmed the death toll. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to brief journalists.
On Thursday, authorities found the bodies of 48 Sunni tribesmen killed by the Islamic State group in Anbar.
The Islamic State group has overrun a large part of Anbar province in its push to expand its territory, which currently current stands at about one-third of both Iraq and Syria. Officials with the Iraqi government, as well as officials with the U.S.-led coalition targeting the extremists, repeatedly have said that Iraqi tribes are key in the fight against the Islamic State group since they are able to penetrate areas inaccessible to airstrikes and ground forces.
Meanwhile Saturday, the United Nations mission in Baghdad said that at least 1,273 Iraqis were killed in violence in October, a slight increase compared to last month amid the Islamic State group's assault.
The U.N. report said violence killed 856 civilians and 417 members of Iraq's security forces, while attacks wounded 2,010 Iraqis.
The worst-hit city was Baghdad, with 379 civilians killed, the report said.
The U.N. figures do not take into account causalities in Anbar province nor some other militant-held parts of Iraq.
The U.N. has said September's death toll was 1,119 Iraqis killed.

Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi freed from Mexican jail, immediately returns to US

After 214 days in a Mexican prison, Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi crossed the US – Mexican border Friday night, boarding a private jet for Florida shortly after 9 p.m., after a strong diplomatic push convinced a judge to release the former Marine on humanitarian grounds.
His release comes after a lengthy trial and a Congressional hearing in September highly critical of Obama Administration efforts to secure his release and Mexico’s refusal to let him go.  Tahmooressi said he made an innocent mistake the evening he crossed into Tijuana with three weapons in his truck on March 31.
While his defense rested its case several weeks ago, Tahmooressi’s release came only after a strong diplomatic push from former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Matt Salmon (R-AZ).
The three officials, along with Tahmooressi’s mother Jill, have spent the last week in Tijuana pressing officials for his release.
Speaking by phone on his way to board a plane with Tahmooressi, Richardson said the trio, along with talk show host Montel Williams, met with Mexico’s Attorney General and Ambassador to the US, advocating for his liberation.
Upon release, Mexican officials processed him quickly through immigration, Richardson said.
“He was happy.  He was smiling.  He's looking good.  His spirits are high,” Richardson told Fox News, adding that Tahmooressi said he wants a steak dinner and stone crabs.
But Richardson also said Tahmooressi is seeking privacy and still needs to receive treatment for his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, something that wasn’t available in Mexican prison-- a key argument put forth by defense attorney Fernando Benitez.
FoxNews.com covered Tahmooressi's seven-month ordeal extensively, with numerous reports from the Tijuana court where hearings were held, interviews with the jailed Marine by telephone and several guest opinion columns by military, medical and legal experts critical of his treatment in Mexico. 

Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteran also covered the case extensively, even driving the poorly-marked and confusing route Tahmooressi took the night he was detained and going to the prison where he was held. But other national media outlets largely ignored the plight of Tahmooressi, and the White House was heavily criticized for not doing more to secure his release despite the fact that Tahmooressi  served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Benitez said that Tahmooressi was continuing to deteriorate and Mexico didn’t have the expertise or facilities to treat his PTSD, which he suffered after two tours in Afghanistan.  
The defense attorney also alleged that customs agents held Tahmooerssi illegally, denying him access to a translator, lawyer and consular access.
But after the seven-month ordeal, it was the PTSD argument that ultimately pressured the judge to acquit Tahmooressi.