Conservative Blogger
Monday, June 15, 2015
Bush's pre-announcement party Sunday includes logo unveiling, online video
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday ended what little mystery remains about his big, upcoming announcement -- unveiling a presidential campaign logo and releasing an online video.
Bush is scheduled to announce Monday that he will seek the 2016 Republican nomination for president -- joining a deep and diverse field of ten other GOP candidates.
The roughly 3-minute video, titled “Making a Difference,” relies on several first-person accounts from Floridians who portray Bush as a politician who “cares about helping people and getting results that allow everyone the opportunity to achieve their dreams,” according to his campaign.
“Bush instituted the first voucher program in the United States to give low-income kids an opportunity to go to a private school,” says one resident, Denisha Merriweather, of Jacksonville. “Out of my immediate family, I am the first person to graduate from high school. And then I went on to graduate from college.”
Bush then says: “So many people could do so much better if we fixed a few things. My core beliefs start with the premise that the most vulnerable in our society should be in the front of the line, not the back. And as governor, I had a chance to act on that core belief.”
Bush unveiled his logo -- “Jeb! 2016” -- on his Twitter account.
The 62-year-old Bush -- whose father, George H.W. Bush, and brother, George W. Bush, were president -- was an early front-runner.
Though he remains near the top of most polls, he shares that space with several other GOP contenders, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom he mentored, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is expected to officially join the race the second week in July.
Bush’s announcement in December that he was exploring a 2016 run alone had the power to kick off the campaign.
In the ensuing six months, Bush has likely shattered fundraising records. And he just completed a well-reviewed trip through Europe.
However, supporters had hoped that by now Bush would hold a commanding position in the unwieldy Republican field, which also included two other U.S. senators, Texas’ Ted Cruz and Kentucky’s Rand Paul, as well as two social conservatives, retired Dr. Ben Carson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and ex-Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, the party’s only female candidate.
"I know that I'm going to have to go earn this," Bush said this past week. "It's a lot of work and I'm excited about the prospects of this. It's a long haul. You start wherever you start, and you end a long way away from where we are today, so I just urge everybody to be a little more patient about this."
He plans to make his candidacy official during a Monday afternoon speech and rally at Miami Dade College, the nation's largest university.
Bush has failed to scare any potential rival from the race, except perhaps 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. He is unpopular among some of his party's most passionate voters and little known beyond his home state despite the Bush name.
"I thought Jeb would take up all the oxygen," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "He hasn't." Emboldened by Bush's slow rise, Kasich acknowledged this weekend that he is stepping up preparations for a possible campaign.
He and a few others are still deciding whether to join a field that could end up just shy of 20.
But few among them entered the race with such a high expectations of success as did Bush. Those expectations have seemed a burden at times.
Take, for example, the question of whether Bush will report raising $100 million for his campaign in the first six months of the year.
Lost amid the "will he or won't he" is that Bush probably will have taken in far more than anyone else.
Romney said this weekend that he would not be surprised to learn that Bush had scooped up twice that of all the other GOP candidates combined.
"By all appearances, he's raised a lot of money," Romney said, praising Bush's "experienced and capable team." "At this stage, that's a very important thing to do."
Even if he does not reach the $100 million mark, Bush will have amassed more in six months than Romney and his allies at a super political action committee raised for the entire year before the 2012 election.
By contrast, a senior adviser to Walker expects he will raise roughly $25 million through the end of June. The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal fundraising details.
Romney's former fundraising chief, Spencer Zwick, said despite Bush likely commanding lead in the fundraising race, it's not clear how much of an advantage he will hold over the field.
"You don't need $100 million to run a primary," Zwick said. He suggested that multiple candidates would have the resources "to go the distance," adding that "it doesn't feel like anybody owns the dominant position."
Bush took lots of questions this past week about a supposed shake-up at campaign headquarters, even though only one member of his senior team -- who remains on Bush's staff -- was affected. The attention exasperated Bush: "It's June, for crying out loud," he told reporters while in Berlin. "We've got a long way to go."
Still, Bush's first six months back in politics since leaving the governor's office in 2007 have been underwhelming at times.
His low-key speaking style often leaves something to be desired, particularly when compared with some opponents. He sometimes gets snippy during long campaign days. While detailed policy questions are often his strength, he struggled for several days last month to answer a predictable question about the war in Iraq that his brother, former President George W. Bush, waged.
"He would be an excellent president no doubt, but how far he can go in the process remains to be seen," said John Rakolta Jr., the CEO of a Michigan construction company and a leading Romney donor.
In his speech Monday, Bush planned to make the case that those involved in creating Washington's problems cannot fix them. The point is designed to jab the Republican senators -- including political protégé˜ in Florida, Marco Rubio -- in the race.
Meanwhile, an allied super PAC fueled by Bush's fundraising haul is developing an advertising strategy that will promote Bush's record in Florida and attack his rivals.
Spokane NAACP leader cancels meeting amid furor
The leader of the Spokane NAACP, Rachel Dolezal, canceled a chapter meeting Monday where she was expected to speak about the furor sparked over her racial identity.
Her parents have said she has falsely portrayed herself as black for years.
Dolezal sent out an email Sunday cancelling the meeting "due to the need to continue discussion with regional and national NAACP leaders." Some, however, questioned whether she had the power to do so.
KREM-TV in Spokane, quoting from an email thread sent to NAACP members, says the head of the chapter's executive committee questioned whether Dolezal had the right to arbitrarily cancel the meeting.
Some are planning a demonstration Monday night calling for Dolezal to step down.
Clinton, advisers have lots to say on key trade legislation, except where candidate stands
Hillary Clinton said Sunday the problems that Congress has with President Obama’s trade agenda should be an opportunity for the president to ask fellow Democrats about their concerns with the proposal but still declined to say whether she supports or opposes the legislation.
"Let's take the lemons and turn it into lemonade," Clinton told about 600 supporters at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, addressing the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership trade proposal that has splintered Obama from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and rank-and-file Democrats.
The legislation would give the president “fast-track” authority to approve pending trade deals with 11 Pacific Rim nations. The measure also allows Congress to approve or reject such deals, but not amend them.
Courting Iowa voters, Clinton sought to address Democratic opponents of the trade legislation, including liberals and labor unions, who have said the Obama-backed plan will cost U.S. jobs. The agreement has not been finalized or submitted to Congress.
"The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi, who had expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers to make sure we get the best strongest deal possible," Clinton said. "And if we don't get it, there should be no deal."
The White House and Republican leaders in Congress now face long odds in trying to revive the trade legislation after congressional Democrats helped defeat a job retraining program to jeopardize Obama's attempt to secure the fast-track authority.
Clinton appeared to be seeking a middle ground, saying while some support the deal and others vehemently oppose it, "I kind of fall in the group that says ‘what's in it?’ And ‘let's make it as good as it can be, and then let's make a decision.’ ”
She said Obama had an "amazing opportunity" to negotiate better terms and reiterated the criteria of worker protections, wages and national security provisions she would seek in a final deal.
Clinton said any deal should include the scuttled Trade Adjustment Assistance program to help retrain workers.
Trade has emerged as an early divider within the Democratic primary.
Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was campaigning in Iowa on Sunday, has opposed the trade deal and questioned Clinton's refusal to say where she stood.
"It is a failed trade policy, and I would hope that the Secretary joins Elizabeth Warren, and vast majority of Democrats in the Congress in saying, ‘No, we've got to defeat this piece of legislation,’ ” Sanders said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has also opposed the deal. In a sign of its resonance within the party, his campaign noted in an email to supporters Saturday that Clinton's speech in New York didn't "weigh in on the secretive TPP deal that could depress American wages and cost American jobs."
The Obama administration has said it remains confident there are ways to get the trade provisions through Congress.
Republican leaders generally support Obama's trade proposal and have suggested they may try to revive the bill as early as this week.
"Republicans delivered," Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday." "The question is: Are the Democrats going to do this to their president?"
While Clinton called the pact the "gold standard" of trade agreements while serving as secretary of state, she has refused to take a position on the deal since announcing her candidacy.
That brought criticism from Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short on Sunday.
"By waffling on a trade deal she helped negotiate and once called a "gold standard," Hillary Clinton continues to show why voters overwhelmingly see her as dishonest and untrustworthy," Short said in a statement.
Clinton was spending most of the weekend in Iowa after formally launching her campaign in New York City, seeking to build an organizational edge in the state that tripped up her first presidential campaign against Obama.
Sanders was campaigning across the state and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who is exploring a potential Democratic bid, also was holding events in Iowa on Sunday. O'Malley held a day's events in the state last week.
Earlier in the day, top Clinton advisers, including senior spokeswoman Karen Finney, said that Clinton is waiting to see the final deal and that she has explained her position in recent weeks.
"We’ll see where this process goes," Finney told Fox News. "This is someone who has voted for trade agreements when they have been good for the country and against trade agreements when she thought they were bad for the country."
Campaign Chairman John Podesta told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Clinton “has a clear standard that (the deal) has got to be good for American workers or she thinks the United States should walk away from it.”
Law enforcement squabbles reportedly hamper search for escaped killers
The ongoing manhunt for two convicted murderers who escaped from a maximum security New York prison earlier this month has been set back by conflicts between the law enforcement agencies pursuing the men.
The New York Post reported late Sunday that the New York State Police, the lead agency into the investigation, has refused to share information about the planning and scope of the search for David Sweat and Richard Matt. Some of the other agencies involved in the manhunt are local police, the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department, the state Correctional Services Department, the state Environmental Conservation Department, and the U.S. Marshals.
At one point during the search, the Post reported, a group of heavily armed State Police troopers was patrolling the woods near Willsboro, N.Y., when they were startled by a Correctional Services Department team that came across their path.
"One team didn’t know what the other team was doing, and that is very dangerous," a law enforcement source told the Post.
The Post report also says that the State Police have excluded at least one other police agency from taking part in press conferences to update the status of the manhunt, a move the paper described as "demoralizing."
"The State Police are trying to make sure that they’re the ones to catch these guys, that they get all the credit," another source told the paper, "and as a result, they’re not making full use of the assets that are available to them."
"They did it without even saying ‘Thanks for your help,’ or such, just, ‘Get out so his highness can enter,'" the second source told the Post.
Sweat and Matt cut their way out of the prison on the night of June 5. Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said Sunday the men apparently used tools routinely stored there by contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night's work so that no one would notice.
Investigators believe the men have not gone far from the prison, noting the lack of reports of stolen vehicles in the area following the breakout. However, Cuomo cautioned Sunday that for all anyone knows, the convicts could be in Mexico by now.
Wylie said it apparently took a long time for the killers to complete their plan, working methodically between midnight and 5 a.m. over many nights.
"They had access, from what we understand, to other tools left in the facility by contractors under policy and were able to open the toolboxes and use those tools and then put them back so nobody would notice," the prosecutor said.
He also said the men had been scouting out the tunnel system under the prison at night for the best way get out.
The convicts used power tools to cut through the back of their adjacent cells, broke through a brick wall, then cut into a steam pipe and slithered through it, finally emerging outside the prison walls through a manhole, authorities said.
Workers on Sunday welded shut a manhole at the base of a wall on the side of the prison where the two men escaped. They also sealed two other manholes on the street near prison, including the one the convicts climbed out of.
Prison worker Joyce Mitchell, 51, was charged Friday with supplying hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver. Wylie said Sunday the two inmates planned to have Mitchell drive them about seven hours away to an unknown destination.
Residents were very much on edge, with some saying they were keeping guns handy. But there was also an outpouring of support for the search effort. A restaurant urged people to tie blue ribbons around trees and mailboxes.
"The locals have been awesome," said Sgt. Barry Cartier of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department, part of a crew from a neighboring county working 12-hour shifts. "They come around with food all the time. We've got too much to eat."
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Obama transfers six more Gitmo detainees, including alleged bin Laden bodyguards
Six detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, including two alleged Usama bin Laden bodyguards, have been transferred to Oman, the Pentagon said Saturday.
The terror-related detainees are all from neighboring and embattled Yemen. They departed Friday from the U.S. detention center, at a Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to get terror suspects off battlefields.
This is the first time in roughly the past five months that Guantanamo suspects have been transferred, as Congress considers new restrictions on such moves.
President Obama campaigned in 2008 to close the facility. The new transfers mark the departure of more than half of the 242 detainees who were at the facility when Obama was sworn into office in 2009. The number is now 116.
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price on Saturday repeated the Obama administration’s argument that keeping open the facility weakens national security by draining resources, damages U.S. relations with key allies and partners and emboldens violent extremists.
“As the president has repeatedly made clear, the administration is determined to close the” facility, he said. “We are taking all possible steps to reduce the detainee population at Guantanamo and to close the detention facility in a responsible manner.”
Congressional Republicans and other critics of releasing detainees argue they have the strong potential to return to the battlefield or commit other acts of terror.
“It’s extremely troubling that the Obama administration has sent six dangerous terrorists to Oman, which borders Yemen -- a country engulfed in civil war and that serves as the headquarters for al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate," said New Hampshire GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"Even more disturbing is the fact that the administration has not provided sufficient assurances to Congress or to the public that these terrorists will not return to the battlefield. If they are not securely detained, no one should be surprised if they travel to Yemen and re-engage in terrorist activities," she said.
2016 GOP presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said: "President Obama is once again putting his legacy above the safety and security of Americans. We need an effective detention program, not continued transfers of prisoners to countries without clear requirements for their monitoring to ensure they don't return to the battlefield."
Each of six the new transferees was unanimously approved through the 2009 Executive Order Task Force. And they were approved by six federal departments or agencies -- the departments of Defense, State, Justice and Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Still, Obama remains far from achieving his closure goal, with just a year and a half left in office and as Capitol Hill lawmakers threaten to make the movement of prisoners even harder.
The transfers to Oman are the first to be given final approve by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who has been on the job four months.
The six new transfers are Emad Abdullah Hassan, who has been on hunger strikes since 2007 in protest of his confinement without charge since 2002.
According to court documents, Hassan said detainees have been force-fed up to a gallon at a time of nutrients and water.
He is accused of being one of many bodyguards for bin Laden, who led the al Qaeda terror group until killed by U.S. forces in 2011. Hassan also was allegedly part of a group planning to attack NATO and American troops in response to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
The five other detainees sent to Oman were identified by the Pentagon as:
-- Idris Ahmad 'Abd Al Qadir Idris and Jalal Salam Awad Awad, also both alleged bodyguards to bin Laden;
-- Sharaf Ahmad Muhammad Mas'ud, whom the United States said fought American soldiers at Tora Bora before his capture in Pakistan;
-- Saa'd Nasser Moqbil Al Azani, a religious teacher whom the U.S. believes had ties to bin Laden's religious adviser; and
-- Muhammad Ali Salem Al Zarnuki, who allegedly arrived in Afghanistan as early as 1998 to fight and support the Taliban.
The Defense Department said it is grateful to the government of Oman for its “humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay” and that the U.S. coordinated with the Oman government to ensure the transfers took place consistent with “appropriate security and humane treatment measures."
The Oman News Agency reported early Saturday that the men would be living there “temporarily,” without elaborating. Sultan Qaboos bin Said approved the men being in the country to aid the U.S. while also taking into account the men’s “humanitarian circumstances,” the agency reported.
Oman's decision to accept the men comes as it has played an increasingly important role in mediations between the U.S. and Iran as world powers try to strike a nuclear deal over the Islamic Republic's contested atomic program.
All of the 11 detainees transferred this year have been from Yemen. At least 43 of the remaining 51 approved for transfer this year are from Yemen.
The administration won't send them home due to instability in Yemen, which has seen Shiite rebels known as Houthis take the capital, Sanaa, and other areas despite a campaign of Saudi-led airstrikes targeting them.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen's local branch of the terror network that the U.S. considers to be the world's most dangerous offshoot of the group, also remains active in the country.
"We are working feverishly to transfer each of the 51 detainees currently approved for transfer," said Ian Moss, who works on detainee transfers at the State Department. "It is not in our national security interest to continue to detain individuals if we as a government have determined that they can be transferred from Guantanamo responsibly."
Some lawmakers want to impose stiffer requirements for transferring Guantanamo detainees to other countries. Obama has threatened to veto a House bill in part because of the Guantanamo restrictions.
An administration official said Oman agreed to accept the six Yemeni detainees about a year ago. But the defense secretary must give final approval to the move, and that has been a slow process at the Pentagon.
The U.S. administration official, speaking on a condition of anonymity without authorization to go on the record, told The Associated Press the Pentagon has sent no further transfer notification to Congress, which is required 30 days before detainees can be moved.
Gunman dead after firing on Dallas police outside headquarters
A crazed gunman armed with an automatic weapon and a shotgun fired on officers outside Dallas Police Headquarters early Saturday morning before being shot by a police sniper following an hours-long standoff.
Authorities later confirmed the suspect was dead.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at a press conference that the gunman-- who self-identified as being James Boulware, though police could not confirm that identity as of Saturday evening-- ranted in a 911 call after the attack about killing cops and came within seconds of doing so in the case of several officers in the line fire.
“We barely survived the intent of this suspect,” Brown said
He said it was extremely fortunate no officers were hurt.
“Some officers say we were lucky, I believe we’re blessed that our officers survived this ordeal,” the chief told reporters.
Investigators found a package containing pipe bombs near the headquarters building and the suspect told police he had C-4 explosives in his armored van, Brown said. The package exploded as an Explosive Ordinance Robot picked it up. “Lots of shrapnel was included in the pipe bombs that exploded-- screws, nails,” a police spokesman tweeted.
Two pipe bombs were also found in the van after the suspect was shot. When police detonated those devices, the gunman’s van caught fire and ammunition rounds went off inside.
Brown described a harrowing scene at police headquarters when the gunman pulled up around 12:30 a.m. and began firing, first with an assault rifle and then with a shotgun.
Bullets struck police squad cars, the inside of the building’s lobby and a second floor office. Brown said one officer avoided getting shot because he had just left his desk to get a soda.
“This suspect meant to kill officers and took time to discharge that weapon multiple times to accomplish (his) wanting to harm our officers,” Brown said.
While police would not identify the shooter, he reportedly was a man who was involved in a custody fight, who was arrested in May 2013 on charges of choking the child's mother, Fox4News.com reported.
The man reportedly made threats against the judge in the case.
Jim Boulware told Fox4News.com that the shooter was his son, James, and that he knew his son had acquired a number of firearms but did not know how he came to possess explosives, the Dallas news station reported.
Police initially reported multiple gunmen, perhaps as many as four. Brown said detectives now believe the suspect acted alone. He said there was confusion at first because the suspect shot at officers from different locations, giving the impression that others were involved.
As officers returned fire, the gunman fled in his vehicle, which appeared to have gun portals in the sides. The vehicle rammed a police cruiser during the getaway.
Officers chased the suspect 11 miles to the parking lot of a Jack in the Box in Hutchins near I-45. There police exchanged more gunfire with the suspect as officers surrounded the vehicle.
Brown said during the stand-off the suspect called 911 and in a nearly five minute call ranted angrily about wanting to commit violence against police officers.
“It was very high pitch anger towards our police department, police officers,” Brown said.
He said the rant was about how police had caused the suspect to lose custody of his child and about how police had accused him of “being a terrorist.”
Brown said the man was not on any terrorism watch list and the shooting did not appear to be terrorism-related.
Brown said eventually a SWAT team was brought in to negotiate with the man, using the phone number from the 911 call. The gunman told police that he was injured, but authorities could not confirm any injuries, Fox4News.com reported.
Brown said that during the “on-and-off” negotiations a police sniper shot out the engine block with a .50 caliber bullet to disable the vehicle.
He said at 5:07 a.m., more than 4 hours into the stand-off, shot the suspect through the front windshield of the van by a police sniper.
“They made the call and I believe it was the right call to take the correct action to stop his violence,” Brown said.
The chief said the bomb robot was being used to confirm he was dead. He said the robot was deployed out of fear the van may be rigged with explosives. He said police bomb technicians wanted to make sure the vehicle was not booby-trapped.
The suspect gave a name to police, identifying himself as James Boulware. “This is the name given, however it has not been confirmed that this is the person we are talking to,” Brown told reporters as the negotiations were taking place.
He said the suspect had three family violence cases against him and “some kind of custody issue.” He said the man had threatened judges handling his cases, but had not acted on those threats.
“His social media footprint is awfully concerning, but there’s no indication that he was planning this type of assault on a police facility,” Brown said.
Police evacuated residents near police headquarters for several hours. A suspicious briefcase found in a dumpster near a police substation was not a bomb, police said.
Ladarrick Alexander and his fiancée, Laquita Davis, were driving back toward the police station to their nearby apartment when they heard 15 to 20 gunshots in quick succession.
Seconds later, police could be seen swarming an unmarked van that appeared to have crashed into a police car, they said.
They turned around and were parked outside the police perimeter about two blocks away, where they heard the sound of one detonation at about 4:30 am and smoke coming up in the air.
Police headquarters is in a former warehouse district where a boutique hotel and several new apartment buildings have been opened.
"We don't see too much going around here at all," Alexander said.
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