Clinton campaign sends memo to supporters ahead of 2016 announcement

Just plows ahead like a old mule with blinders on.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign team circulated a memo to her supporters Saturday that laid out guiding principles, a day before she is expected to kick off her long-anticipated 2016 presidential campaign.
The memo, obtained by Fox News, is called “We Are Hillary For America.” The memo explains the principles and purposes behind the Clinton campaign, saying the campaign’s aim is “to give every family, every small business, and every American a path to lasting prosperity by electing Hillary Clinton the next President of the United States.”
“This campaign is not about Hillary Clinton and not about us -- it’s about the everyday Americans who are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families,” the memo says
The memo concludes with a series of guiding principles that include:
"We are disciplined: driven every day by strategy, not tactics or one offs. We know there will be tough days, but we will bounce back and get back to work. We take risks, always measuring with empirical data to establish best practices."
"We are humble: we take nothing for granted, we are never afraid to lose, we always out-compete and fight for every vote we can win. We know this campaign will be won on the ground, in states."
"We are responsible: we always remember and appreciate the generosity of millions of people who invest their time and resources in Hillary Clinton and in us."
It ends by telling recipients: “We are guided by Hillary’s bedrock values of hard work, service, fairness, and faith in the American Dream."
The former secretary of state is expected to first reveal her decision to voters via social media on Sunday. Sources told Fox News that, as has been widely expected, Clinton will then head to key early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire next week.
Clinton would be the first Democratic candidate to confirm a run for the White House, and she is considered the clear frontrunner to win the party’s nomination. If she were to win in 2016, she would be the first female U.S. president.
Sources say, in advance of her announcement, Clinton has been holed up in recent days behind closed doors in policy meetings. The meetings have covered a range of subjects, including national security as well as domestic topics like the economy.
Clinton would join the race after two Republicans -- Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- already declared. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also is expected to announce his plans next week.
Despite not being an official candidate, Clinton has faced immense scrutiny from the media, and Republicans, over her use of personal email while secretary of state and her family foundation's acceptance of foreign donations. On Friday, Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said Clinton "has left a trail of secrecy, scandal and failed liberal policies that no image consultant can erase."

Unions fight to preserve Obama’s immigration actions, their members

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy.
The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration.
The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar opportunities for the parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
The AFL-CIO’s 36-page brief essentially argues that Texas lacks the so-called “legal standing” to challenge the memorandum and that the administration didn’t violate procedural requirements in issuing the order.
However, the union also makes very clear its interest in the outcome of the proceedings.
“First, through existing collective bargaining relationships, AFL-CIO affiliates represent many undocumented workers in workplaces throughout the country,” according to the brief by the AFL-CIO, the country’s bigger union collective, with 56 unions representing roughly 12 million workers and retired workers.
Union lawyers argue such workers have substantive protection under labor and employment law but not to a “full range of remedies” when such laws are violated.
Such workers are not entitled to back pay under the National Labor Relations Act and are vulnerable to employer retaliation if they complain about violations, the lawyers argue.
“Secondly, this lack of legal remedies and vulnerability to retaliation creates an incentive for some unscrupulous employers to employ large numbers of undocumented workers at sub-standard wages and working conditions,” they continue in the brief. “Law-abiding employers must compete with these employers, making it more difficult for AFL-CIO affiliate unions to raise wages and improve working conditions.”
Many critics of Obama’s plans to reform federal immigration law without a vote in Congress say he is providing “amnesty” to those who have entered the U.S. illegally. They also say his plans -- backed by Americans companies and labor unions -- take away jobs from U.S. citizens.
"The labor unions, like Democratic politicians, have decided to rely on importing the citizens of other nations to gain power in this one. Of course this cancels out jobs and votes for Americans," a GOP congressional aide told FoxNews.com on Saturday.
In 2004, the AFL-CIO spent $5.1 million in lobbying and gave $8.7 million in political-related contributions, with no money going to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.org.
The entire case, Texas et al v. USA, started in February when a federal judge granted the states a preliminary injunction, which temporarily stops Obama’s 2014 plan from going into effect.
The U.S. government wants the injunction lifted so Obama's actions can proceed but meanwhile has appealed the Texas court ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, in which the amicus briefs have been filed.
Obama's actions would prevent as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally from being deported.
The 27 states also argue that the 2014 action is unconstitutional and would force them to invest more in law enforcement, health care and education.
The injunction is intended to stall Obama's actions while the lawsuit progresses through the courts.
Obama's orders to expand a program that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children was set to take effect Feb. 18. The part that would extend deportation protections to the parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents was slated to begin on May 19.
The 44-page amicus brief from the American Federation of Teachers includes seven other groups including ASPIRA -- the largest national Latino organization in the country.
The document largely makes the case that all children in the U.S. should have access to education for their “psychological, emotional, and physical well-being” and that children in families in which at least one member is an illegal immigrant should not be forced to live apart from their parents.
A coalition of groups including the Service Employees International Union, the second-largest public service union and a big supporter of Democratic political candidates and organizations, filed an amicus brief in the original case.
“The November 20, 2014 executive action on immigration would have beneficial effects on the U.S. economy and U.S. workers,” the brief states in part. “Temporary work authorization for those immigrants who are eligible for deferred action will raise not only their wages, but the wages of all Americans, which will in turn increase government tax revenue and create new jobs.”

Obama says partisanship wrangling over Iran nuclear deal 'needs to stop'

The King has Spoken.

President Obama said Saturday that partisan wrangling over the nuclear agreement with Iran has gone beyond pale and said the harsh criticism of the deal “needs to stop.”
Obama said that Arizona Sen. John McCain had suggested Secretary of State John Kerry’s explanations of the framework agreement in Iran were “somehow less trustworthy” than those of Iran’s supreme leader.
"That's an indication of the degree to which partisanship has crossed all boundaries," an exercised Obama said in a news conference at the end of the two-day Summit of the Americas. "And we're seeing this again and again."
Obama said he understood that people would be against the proposed deal and be suspicious of Iran.
"But when you start getting to the point where you are actively communicating that the United States government and our secretary of state is somehow spinning presentations in a negotiation with a foreign power, particularly one you say is your enemy, that's a problem," he said.
An aggressive Obama even attacked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his criticism, saying the Kentucky Republican had been “telling the world” not to have confidence that the U.S. can meet its own climate change goals.
Obama also renewed complaints about the 47 Republican senators who sent a letter to Iran’s leaders saying that any deal the Iranians made with the U.S. would not necessarily hold up after Obama has left the office.
Obama said he's still "absolutely positive" that the framework agreement is the best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And he added that if the final negotiations don't produce a tough enough agreement, the U.S. can back away from it.
The president added that instead of working to make the nuclear deal better, GOP critics seemed out to sink it.
"I don't understand why it is that everybody's working so hard to anticipate failure," he said.
McCain fired back at Obama’s complaints Saturday night.
McCain last week said that comments by Iran's supreme leader had suggested that Iran and the Obama administration were on different pages. McCain called the supreme leader's suggestion that Iran wouldn't allow unlimited inspections "a major setback," adding that it was the supreme leader, not President Hassan Rouhani or Iran's foreign minister, who really calls the shots in Iran.
"These widely divergent explanations of the nuclear deal must be fully explained and reconciled if we are to give serious consideration to this agreement,” McCain said.
McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, was among the signatories to the GOP letter to Iran's leaders warning that any deal struck with Obama would be "a mere executive agreement" that the next president could revoke. In the days since, McCain has stood by the letter's sentiment while acknowledging that writing to the leadership in Tehran had not been the most effective move. Kerry has denounced that letter as "unconstitutional."
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to debate and begin voting Tuesday on amendments to legislation calling for Congress to have a say on the nuclear agreement.
Obama opposes the bill as written and has pledged to veto it, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed numerous amendments to either make a final deal impossible to reach or to give the White House more leeway to negotiate with Iran.
Under the bill, Obama could unilaterally lift or ease any sanctions that were imposed on Iran through presidential action. But he would be prohibited for 60 days from suspending, waiving or otherwise easing any sanctions Congress levied on Iran.

Nuke Deal Cartoon

Senators seek probe of claims US workers fired, forced to train foreign replacements

A popular visa program allegedly is being misused by U.S. companies to lay off thousands of American workers and replace them with foreign labor.
And, adding insult to injury, many of the laid-off workers allegedly have been forced to train their replacements, in what one anonymous whistleblower called a “humiliating” experience.
The allegations have caught the attention of a bipartisan group of senators -- including immigration hawk Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Illinois’ Dick Durbin -- who are calling for a federal probe. A letter sent by 10 senators urging an investigation specifically cited reports of the firing and hiring practices at Southern California Edison, California's second-largest utility. The incidents are concentrated in the IT field, and involve American workers being replaced by H-1B visa holders.
“A number of U.S. employers, including some large, well-known, publicly-traded corporations, have reportedly laid off thousands of American workers and replaced them with H-1B visa holders,” the senators wrote.
In the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, the senators urged the departments to “investigate the unacceptable replacement of American workers” to see whether laws were broken.
The H-1B program is supposed to be used to bring in, on a temporary basis, skilled workers with highly specialized skills not readily available in the U.S. They are often used in the technology sector to bring in engineers and computer programmers.
Further, U.S. employers can hire foreign workers for up to six years and must pay them the same rate they would pay other workers with similar qualifications, or the prevailing wage for that job and location, whichever is higher. This is done to prevent foreign workers from depressing U.S. wages and from being exploited.
But reports have surfaced that the replacements are happening at an alarming rate. And former Southern California Edison workers have complained to lawmakers that they were replaced by less-skilled workers at lower costs.
Anonymous workers who were displaced by the visa holders also submitted written testimonials to lawmakers detailing their firings. Several claimed they were forced to train their replacements, and threatened with losing their severance if they did not.
“We had no choice in this,” one anonymous worker who claimed to have been one of those let go from Southern California Edison, said in a letter. The worker described how when the two vendors were picked – Infosys and TCS, both major Indian companies – SCE employees were told to “sit with, video chat or do whatever was needed to teach them our systems.”
If they did not cooperate, according to the testimonial, “we would be fired and not receive a severance package.”
Another worker described this process as “humiliating.”
In a statement, Southern California Edison said it abides by the law and will cooperate with any investigation that concerns the issues mentioned in the senators' letter.
The company explained that it's reducing its information technology department from 1,400 to 860. Of those left, 97 percent are permanent California residents and 3 percent are on H-1B visas.
Southern California Edison said it's contracting with IT vendors to fulfill certain contracts and that most of those workers are permanent U.S. residents and aren't working under H-1B visas.
"By transitioning some IT operations to external vendors, along with SCE eliminating some customized functions it will no longer provide, the company will focus on making significant, strategic changes that can benefit our customers," Southern California Edison's emailed statement read.
But the senators, in their letter, raised several questions about how the replacements were being done. They said it appears the workers are often not employees of the U.S. company laying off workers – but are contractors working for foreign-owned IT consultants.
The H-1B program stipulates that applicants must have a valid “employer-employee relationship” – and the senators questioned whether that was the case here.
They also asked whether the companies “engaged in prohibited citizenship status discrimination” (against American citizens); and whether the visa petitions showed “any evidence of misrepresentation or fraud.”
Sessions said in a statement that the SCE allegations “ought to be the tipping point that finally compels Washington to take needed actions to protect American workers.”
The letter from senators follows a hearing last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which invited Southern California Edison to testify, though the company declined.
Ronil Hira, a professor at Howard University, said at the hearing that the utility outsourced work to two companies, and those companies employed H-1B staffers who were then trained by the employees they were replacing. "There could not be a clearer case of the H-1B program being used to harm American workers' wages and working conditions," Hira said.
Republican senators seeking the investigation are Sessions, Charles Grassley of Iowa, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Bill Cassidy and David Vitter of Louisiana.
Democratic senators seeking the investigation are Durbin, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, also signed the letter.

Holder warns DOJ employees against soliciting prostitutes

Attorney General Eric Holder sent a memo to employees of the Department of Justice Friday, reminding them that soliciting prostitutes is against agency rules and that violation of those rules could lead to suspension or termination.
“The solicitation of prostitution threatens the core mission of the Department, not simply because it invites extortion, blackmail, and leaks of sensitive or classified information, but also because it undermines the Department's efforts to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking,” the memo said.
The memo was sent weeks after a Justice Department watchdog report alleged several Drug Enforcement Administration agents attended "sex parties" with prostitutes in an unnamed “host country” paid for by local drug cartels.
The alleged parties took place over a period of several years. According to the report by the Justice Department inspector general, the parties were even held in agents' U.S. government-leased quarters.
The IG report found such allegations often went unreported or underreported, or were not pursued properly.
Holder said in the memo Friday that the prohibition on soliciting prostitutes also applies when employees are off duty, or in a foreign country where prostitution is legal.
The Department of Justice is in the process of reviewing security clearances of the DEA employees who attended the parties, and is investigating the disciplinary process following the accusations of sexual misconduct, a senior law enforcement official told Fox News.
"Department leadership takes very seriously the allegations laid out in the IG's report and acted quickly to remind all employees that they are prohibited from participating in commercial sex acts and will be suspended or terminated for violating the policy,” a Justice Department spokeswoman said in a statement Friday.

Political guns? GOP hopefuls take swipes at Obama, Clinton at national NRA conference

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio took aim Friday at President Obama and Washington lawmakers over gun control measures during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Tennessee.
“The constitutional right to bear arms is constantly in jeopardy,” Rubio told the crowd during his 10-minute speech. “Our people have a right that must never be denied.”
Rubio, who is expected to formally enter the race for the White House on Monday, was among a group of potential GOP presidential candidates speaking at the Nashville convention.
Rubio’s anti-gun control remarks turned into broad criticism of Obama, whom he called “a weak president” and said the only thing Obama strengthened during his time in the Oval Office “has been his own unlawful power.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took a jab at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s record, telling attendees, “She actually gave Russia a reset button! A reset button!”
“I wonder what her campaign slogan will be?” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal asked the crowd: “It may be - what difference does it make?”
Clinton is expected to announce her second run for the presidency on Sunday.
The NRA has become a national stage for Republicans considering a run for the Oval Office. This year, nearly 70,000 people are expected to participate in the three-day gathering in Nashville.
Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s CEO, said the gun lobby would stand “shoulder to shoulder” to prevent Clinton from being the country’s next president.
The NRA’s annual meeting is the third gathering of possible GOP hopefuls this year. All of the speakers at the event who have held public office also have an A-rating from the politically powerful gun rights organization.
NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Barker said the lineup of speakers “all bring unique life experiences” to the stage.
Among the other headliners: From Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz and former Gov. Rick Perry; from Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush; former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; and neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who officially launched his presidential campaign Tuesday, did not attend due to a campaign event in Iowa. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has a C-rating from the NRA, also did not attend.
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence were scheduled to attend but canceled their appearances.
Opposing groups are planning rallies near the NRA event Saturday to press for more gun safety laws.

IG to review ‘special’ program that let Clinton aide Huma Abedin have 2 jobs

The State Department inspector general plans to review a controversial program that allowed a longtime Hillary Clinton aide to work for a private firm at the same time she was working for the former secretary of state.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who originally sought a probe of Huma Abedin’s job status citing conflict of interest concerns, revealed the development on Friday – releasing a letter from Inspector General Steve Linick confirming the review.
Grassley’s questions centered on how Abedin was allowed to work as a top assistant to then-Secretary of State Clinton under a special, part-time status while also being employed at a politically connected consulting firm.
She was able to do so under a status known as “Special Government Employee.”
Linick said in his letter that his office “intends to examine the Department’s SGE program to determine if it conforms to applicable legal and policy requirements, including whether or not the program, as implemented, includes safeguards against conflicts of interest.”
The decision comes as the IG also looks at department email practices, following the revelation that Clinton exclusively used personal email, on a private server, while secretary of state. That controversy prompted Grassley, last month, to revive his long-running concerns about Abedin – questioning whether her emails would even be accessible to those looking into her records, as she reportedly was on Clinton’s server.
Grassley hailed the IG’s decision to start looking into the SGE program.
“This program is meant to be used in a limited way to give the government special expertise it can’t get otherwise,” Grassley said in a statement on Friday. “An inspector general review is necessary. Available information suggests that in at least one case, the State Department gave the special status for employee convenience, not public benefit.”
Abedin is married to former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned after a sexting scandal.
Grassley’s inquiries on the SGE status started in 2013, when he requested all communications between Abedin, after she switched from a full-time deputy chief of staff for Clinton to a part-timer, then started working for Teneo, a consulting firm that says it “brings together the disciplines of government and public affairs.”
“A number of conflict-of-interest concerns arise when a government employee is simultaneously being paid by a private company,” Grassley said in a March 19 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that also raised concerns about Abedin and other department employees appearing to have been “improperly categorized” as SGEs.
Grassley said at the time the department’s answers so far were “largely unresponsive” and pointed to a November 2014 response that in part states “an individual may receive an SGE designation if he or she is joining the department from the private sector or is coming from another government position.”
However, Abedin came neither from the private sector nor another government position, Grassley argued.
Grassley also said the purpose of the SGE program is to help the government get temporary services from people with special knowledge and skills whose principal employment is outside the government.
A July 2013 letter from the department to Grassley said Abedin worked full-time from January 2009 to June 2012.
The State Department says Abedin was then an SGE until February 2013, essentially doing the same job that she did as a full-time employee, advising on Clinton’s schedule and travel. It also states she reviewed department ethics guidelines but was allowed to work part-time without a new security clearance.