Conservative Blogger
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Christie goes live with presidential campaign site
Republican Chris Christie's political team has gone live with a presidential campaign website days before he jumps into the 2016 race.
The new website -- www.chrischristie.com -- shows the New Jersey governor's name along with the slogan, "Telling it like it is."
Christie also is promoting the site with a short animated video posted on his Twitter feed. The site says it's paid for Chris Christie for President, Inc.
Christie has a "special announcement event" set for Tuesday in the gym of Livingston High School, from which he graduated in 1980. Donors and friends have gotten invitations, and Christie's team has invited reporters to attend.
After his announcement, Christie plans to go to New Hampshire for a town hall meeting.
The crowded GOP field already has 13 candidates.
Newspaper faces firestorm after attempted crack-down on anti-gay marriage op-eds
A Pennsylvania newspaper is facing a firestorm of criticism after the editorial board said it would "very strictly limit" op-eds and letters against same-sex marriage on the heels of Friday's historic Supreme Court ruling.
PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg has issued a string of statements on its opinion page policies since the ruling -- which legalized gay marriage nationwide -- and by Saturday morning, appeared to have softened its op-ed restrictions on the subject.
But the newspaper initially took a hard-line stance. Editorial Page Editor John Micek tweeted shortly after the ruling that the newspaper would "no longer accept" or print op-eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.
He then tweeted:
A newspaper editorial published online was updated Friday afternoon to clarify the board's op-ed policy. In the editorial, which cheered the decision and said majority opinion author Justice Anthony Kennedy "nailed it," the board issued the following statement:
"As a result of Friday's ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will very strictly limit op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.
"These unions are now the law of the land. And we will not publish such letters and op-Eds any more than we would publish those that are racist, sexist or anti-Semitic.
"We will, however, for a limited time, accept letters and op-Eds on the high court's decision and its legal merits."
Micek also tweeted:
This apparently did not satisfy readers, who posted a cascade of critical comments online. One read: "Clearly, PennLive's policy is not to limit criticism of settled law, but rather to limit criticism of settled law that its editors like."
Saying he had been inundated with critical emails and phone calls, Micek then apologized in a column on Saturday morning -- saying they had made a "very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion" but recognize that "there are people of good conscience and of goodwill who will disagree with Friday's high court ruling."
He wrote: "They are, and always will be, welcome in these pages, along with all others of goodwill, who seek to have an intelligent and reasoned debate on the issues of the day. These pages, I remind myself finally, belong to the people of Central Pennsylvania. I'm a conduit, I recognize, for them to share their views and to have the arguments that make us better as a people. And all views are -- and always will be -- welcome."
Micek stressed that nobody at the newspaper is an opponent of the First Amendment. But he stressed that a civil debate is important, and the opinion page would draw the line when it comes to offensive speech.
"More than once yesterday I was referred to as 'f****t-lover,' among other slurs," he wrote. "And that's the point that I was trying to make with our statement: We will not publish such slurs any more than we would publish racist, sexist or anti-Semitic speech. There are ways to intelligently discuss an issue. The use of playground insults is not among them. And they are not welcome at PennLive/The Patriot-News."
Webb close to 2016 decision, insiders say Clinton camp helped delay launch
CLINTON, Iowa – Jim Webb was supposed to declare he was running for president Friday night. At least that's what the prevailing belief was inside his campaign.
Webb was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Clinton County Democratic Hall Of Fame dinner in Clinton, Iowa. While the timing was bad (Friday night, where news goes to die), insiders said Webb thought it would be a good place to drop the hammer on a presidential run.
Enter the Clinton campaign, which Webb confidantes grumble has been sandbagging them at every turn. They convinced the Clinton County Democratic Party to add Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar to the speakers roster. The intention was for her to give a spirited sales pitch for Hillary at the very same place and time Webb would launch his campaign.
For Webb, insiders say, that, plus the fact that a Friday night launch could have gotten lost in the news cycle, was enough to convince him to delay the announcement.
Until when, only Webb knows.
Fox News caught up with Webb before the dinner, after a three-hour drive from Chicago which he described as "long." He wasn't giving up anything on the Clinton campaign stealing his thunder. To do so would be to admit there was thunder in the first place, which candidates are loath to do until the words "I'm running for president" actually come out of their mouth. But he did allow that he is getting close to pulling the trigger.
"We're pretty close to being done ... that's the best thing I can say, really," Webb said.
It was typical understatement from a guy who plays his cards so close to the vest that even his closest advisers are left to do a lot of tea-leaf reading. But Webb himself has said he would make a decision sometime around the end of June, so "close to being done" could be read as "imminent."
And it became clear Friday night that Webb's campaign will be one of 'themes' and not specific policy proposals. Go to the "issues" section of his website and one can find his positions on the complex problems facing the nation summed up in a single paragraph.
Ask him about specifics on, for example, what he would do to grow the economy and he begins to bristle.
"I don't think that the issue right now for me is to bring in some sort of a specific set of numbers that I would pull out of the air," Webb told Fox News. "The issue is to lay down the themes that we would govern on and then to bring good people in."
That's the Webb formula -- one he employed successfully as a senator from Virginia. Take a problem, gather together the brightest minds you can find, examine it from every angle, then chart a course to fix it. It doesn't fit into a convenient sound bite, nor does it give the level of detail that politically savvy voters in Iowa and New Hampshire want to chew over. But it is classic Webb style.
"The most important thing a leader can do is to reach out and get good people -- the best minds in the country to come together and figure out solutions -- to give a vision of where you want the country to go," Webb told Fox News.
Webb has a reputation for meticulously thinking through every issue with the perseverance of an academic before rendering an opinion -- as he did earlier this week with a Facebook posting about the Confederate flag. Webb decreed that the issue was "complicated" and that any discussion about the flag needed to recognize that the majority of soldiers who fought for the South did not own slaves and that the nation needs "to respect good people who fought on both sides."
Many of Webb's most ardent fans saw it as a defense of a flag that has come to symbolize racism and vigorously disagreed with him.
"The Confederate battle flag was a battle flag," Webb told Fox News. "It was misused particularly during the civil rights era as a racist and political symbol. And I am fine with it coming down from public fora. At the same time, let's remember our history and let's not turn the acts of people who fought on either side in the Civil War into something they were not."
The nuance Webb expresses is a departure for most presidential candidates who speak in short, declarative sentences. Between his thought processes and his background in the military, politics and private sector, he has been described as a person who has the potential to be 'the most interesting candidate in the race.' Certainly, voters who spend time with him come away with a favorable opinion. But the big question -- can Webb take on the juggernaut that is the Hillary Clinton campaign?
Webb is confident.
"If I didn't think it was possible, I would not do it," Webb told Fox News.
Webb points to his Senate race, when he beat incumbent George Allen in Virginia. Webb was 33 points behind nine months before the race and managed to win. Of course, it helped that Allen imploded over his now-infamous "macaca" comments.
Can lightning strike twice? Could Hillary falter? Talk to Democratic voters in Iowa and many will tell you they are open to an alternative.
"We don't do coronations here, we do discussions," said Dr. Andy McGuire, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party.
Even if Webb has no chance to become the nominee, his entry into the race would certainly add new energy to the debate, though voters may be hungry for a little more detail than Webb is presently willing to provide.
Surviving escaped prisoner likely fatigued and prone to mistakes, police say
Police searching for the second of two escaped prisoners who pulled off an elaborate breakout from a maximum-security New York prison three weeks ago say that the remaining escapee is fatigued and likely to make a mistake after law enforcement officers shot and killed his accomplice Friday.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers have converged on a wooded area 30 miles from the Clinton Correctional Facility with helicopters and search dogs, where David Sweat is believed to be hiding. Sweat and fellow escapee Richard Matt escaped from the maximum-security prison in Dannemora about three weeks ago.
Matt was shot Friday afternoon after an encounter with border patrol agents.
About 1,200 searchers focused intensely on 22 square miles Saturday encompassing thick forests and heavy brush around where Matt was killed.
Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill told Fox News that police are very motivated after Friday's events, while Sweat is likely fatigued, increasing the chances he will slip up.
"He's been out of prison for three weeks. He's been on the run for three weeks," Mulverhill said. "He's in this area, he's now lost his cellmate, his escapemate is gone, he's alone."
"If he's in this perimeter, we're pushing him we're moving him around," Mulverhill said. He's tired, he's going to make a mistake."
Sweat also could have an even tougher time now without someone to take turns resting with and watch his back, said Clinton County Sheriff David Favro.
"Now it's a one-man show and it makes it more difficult for him," Favro said. "And I'm sure fatigue is setting in for him as well, knowing the guy he was with has already been shot."
Authorities said Matt was shot by a border patrol agent when he failed to comply with orders in the woods near a cabin where a shot had been fired earlier in the day at a camping trailer. A 20-gauge shotgun was found on Matt, though he didn’t fire it at officers, authorities said.
"They verbally challenged him, told him to put up his hands. And at that time, he was shot when he didn't comply," New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said at a news conference late Friday.
The breakthrough came Friday shortly before 2 p.m., when a person towing a camper head a loud sound and thought a tire had blown out. Finding the tire intact, the driver drove another eight miles before discovering a bullet hole.
Authorities converged on the location where the sound was heard and discovered the smell of gunfire inside a cabin. D’Amico said there was also evidence someone had fled out the back door.
A noise -- perhaps a cough -- ultimately did Matt in. A border patrol team discovered Matt, who was shot after failing to heed a command to raise his hands.
"As we were doing the ground search in the area, there was movement detected by officers on the ground, what they believed to be coughs. So they knew that they were dealing with humans as opposed to wildlife," he said.
"We have a lot of people in the area. We have canines and we have a decent perimeter set up and we're searching for Sweat at this time," he said.
The pair escaped the prison together on June 6. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called them “dangerous, dangerous men.”
Police blocked off all roads as officers hunted for Sweat in an area around Titusville Mountain State Forest in Malone, spanning 22 square miles.
Mitch Johnson said one of his best friends checked on his hunting cabin in Malone Friday afternoon and called police after noticing the scent of grape flavored gin as soon as he stepped into his cabin and spotting the bottle that had gone untouched for years resting on a kitchen table.
Johnson said his friend, correction officer Bob Willett, told him he summoned police about an hour before Matt was fatally shot and then heard a flurry of gun blasts.
Matt and Sweat used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a 2-foot-thick brick wall, and squirmed through pipes to escape.
Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff's deputy in Broome County in 2002. Matt was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss.
A civilian worker at the prison has been charged with helping the killers flee by giving them hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools.
Prosecutors said Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who got close to the men while working with them, had agreed to be their getaway driver but backed out because she felt guilty for participating. Mitchell pleaded not guilty June 15 to charges including felony promoting prison contraband.
Authorities said the men had filled their beds in their adjacent cells with clothes to make it appear they were sleeping when guards made overnight rounds. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude caricature of an Asian face and the words "Have a nice day."
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said they apparently used tools stored by prison contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night's work.
On June 24, authorities charged Clinton correction officer Gene Palmer with promoting prison contraband, tampering with physical evidence and official misconduct. Officials said he gave the two prisoners the frozen hamburger meat Joyce Mitchell had used to hide the tools she smuggled to Sweat and Matt. Palmer's attorney said he had no knowledge that the meat contained hacksaw blades, a bit and a screwdriver.
Dannemora, built in 1845, occupies just over 1 square mile within the northern reaches of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and is surrounded by forest and farmland. The stark white perimeter wall of the prison, topped with guard towers, borders a main street in the village's business district.
The escape was the first in history from Clinton Correctional's maximum-security portion. In July 2003, two convicted murderers used tools from a carpentry shop at Elmira Correctional Facility to dig a hole in the roof of their cell and a rope of bedsheets to go over the wall. They were captured within three days, and a subsequent state investigation cited lax inmate supervision, poor tool control and incomplete cell searches.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Confederacy purge builds steam, while last century's worst villains spared
All symbols of the Confederacy are rapidly disappearing from stores, websites and the public square in the wake of last week's racially charged shooting in a Charleston, S.C., church, but the purge of some allegedly hateful icons has spared memorabilia linked to some of history's most infamous mass murderers, some critics are charging.
Amazon.com has now banned all Confederate battle flag items from being sold on its site, but the massive e-commerce site continues to allow the sale of dozens of apparel items featuring communist mass murderers such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Che Guevara, prompting some to accuse the site and others banning Confederate imagery of hypocrisy.
“If Amazon is removing the Confederate flag from its offerings, the logical and principled decision is to stop selling any promotional material, including T-shirts, of Che Guevara or any mass killer."“If Amazon is removing the Confederate flag from its offerings, the logical and principled decision is to stop selling any promotional material, including T-shirts, of Che Guevara or any mass killer,” said Maria Werlau, executive director of the Free Society Project. “It is very painful particularly to the loved ones of Guevara's victims as well as offensive to the Cuban people who continue to suffer repression and abhorrent human rights' abuses by the system he helped create and direct.”
- Maria Werlau, Free Society Project.
Although Guevara is a popular image on T-shirts, he executed many non-communists in Cuba. At one point he admitted in a speech to communist officials: "We executed many people by firing squad without knowing if they were fully guilty. At times, the Revolution cannot stop to conduct much investigation; it has the obligation to triumph."
Others also take offense to items that idolize communists.
“It's an insult to the more than 100 million people who have been killed… at the hands of communist governments,” Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told FoxNews.com.
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Che Guevara memorabilia is popular, despite the former Cuban revolutionary's admitted role in mass murder.
There are also public displays of communist leaders on private property around the country. Seattle is home to a 16-foot bronze statue of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. In New York City, a large statue of Lenin looks out over the city from atop a luxury apartment complex.
Smith said such statues are also offensive.
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A 16-foot statue of Russian Communist leader Vladimir Lenin stands in Seattle's Fremont section.
Some defend the statues, saying they are art and not necessarily supportive of communism.
“[The statue] is very controversial and it is that thought provoking spirit that is most enjoyed by [people who live here],” Jessica Vets, executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, where the statue is located, told FoxNews.com.
“History is less likely to repeat itself with thought-provoking dialog and historical facts,” she added.
In terms of historical facts, how bad were Lenin and the others? Lenin’s brutality is especially clear in an order of his from 1918, in which he directed his subordinates to kill middle-class farmers (derisively called “kulaks”) who opposed communist reforms.
“You need to hang… at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, and the bloodsuckers… This needs to be accomplished in such a way that people for hundreds of miles around will see, tremble, know and scream out: let's choke and strangle those blood-sucking kulaks,” he said to his subordinates.
But Lenin was considered a moderate compared to Joseph Stalin, who ruled shortly after him. Nobody knows how many Stalin killed, but estimates range between 20 and 30 million. One of the worst atrocities happened when Stalin’s government took all the food from parts of Ukraine, letting some 7 million of its citizens starve to death even while the country continued to export food to other parts of the world.
But communist atrocities aside, some say removing the Confederate flag is still a step in the right direction and that it is wrong to make a comparison with communism.
“Amazon is a public company and they want to respond to the public, and public opinion is against the confederate flag,” Nomiki Konst, executive director of The Accountability Project, told FoxNews.com. She also noted that the U.S. generally has not been directly at war with communist countries.
“We didn’t have a real war against communism, but a very large proportion of our population was killed under the Confederate flag," she said. "When the majority of Americans feel personally affected – the companies are being very smart about this.”
Although communism largely died along with the Soviet Union, a 2011 Rasmussen poll found that 11percent of Americans say they think communism works better than the U.S. system. In comparison, a 2011 Pew poll found that only 9 percent of Americans said seeing the Confederate flag made them feel positively.
Some say the different treatment shows hypocrisy.
“This is further evidence of the liberal crusade against American history,” Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center told FoxNews.com.
“Apple and other liberal tech firms are undermining the traditional support of free speech on the Internet. And the reason they haven't deleted communist items is they don't see those as bad,” he said.
BC distances itself from Donald Trump; Miss USA co-host quits over immigration comments
NBC released a statement distancing itself from GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump over his comments on Mexican immigrants.
"Donald Trump's opinions do not represent those of NBC, and we do not agree with his positions on a number of issues, including his recent comments on immigration," NBC said in a statement.
Miss USA co-host Roselyn Sanchez cited Trump's comments about immigrants as her reason for severing ties with the show.
"Since I heard Trump's speech, as a Latina I felt a lump in my stomach. 'It's got to be a joke,' I thought," the star of the Lifetime series "Devious Maids" told The Associated Press.
Trump's fledgling GOP presidential bid quickly led to business fallout for him, with Univision saying it will drop the Miss USA pageant from its UniMas network and cut all ties with Trump.
The company said Thursday it was canceling its Spanish-language coverage of the pageant July 12. It also has severed its business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which produces the Miss USA pageant, because of what it called "insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants" by Trump, a part owner of Miss Universe.
NBC remained silent about its scheduled coverage of the pageant, which has aired on the network since 2003. Trump is featured on another NBC program, "Celebrity Apprentice."
During his presidential campaign kickoff speech last week, Trump portrayed immigrants from Mexico as "bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people." He also called for building a wall along the southern border of the U.S. The remarks drew condemnation from the Mexican government as "biased and absurd."
In an interview Thursday, Trump said his criticism was directed against U.S. policymakers, not the Mexican people or government, adding that Univision would be defaulting on its contract if it doesn't air the pageant and he would take legal action.
On Friday, a representative for Trump sent FOX411 a letter the mogul sent Univision president Randy Falco. The letter began, "Please be advised that under no circumstances is any officer or representative of Univision allowed to use Trump National Doral, Miami -- its golf courses or any of its facilities."
He added, " Also, it's too bad you didn't have the courage to call me yourself instead of delegating the task to Beau."
Trump concluded the letter with, "Please congratulate your Mexican Government officials for having made such outstanding trade deals with the United States. However, inform them that should I become President, those days are over. We are bringing jobs back to the U.S. Also, a border will be immediately created, not the laughingstock that currently exists."
"At Univision, we see firsthand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country," said the New York-based Univision Communications Inc.
Trump said Univision is submitting to pressure from Mexican leaders to punish him for positions he voices as a candidate on the campaign trail.
"They don't want me saying that Mexico is killing the United States in trade and killing the United States at the border," Trump said. "Univision is totally laying down for the Mexican government. ... They want to silence Donald Trump. And Donald Trump can't be silenced. ... I have great respect for Mexico and I love the Mexican people, but my loyalty is to the United States."
Univision declined to comment on Trump's remarks. It also has the rights to air the Miss Universe pageant.
In an interview scheduled to air Sunday on Telemundo's "Enfoque con José Díaz-Balart," Trump said that "many bad people are coming in" from Mexico and elsewhere.
"You're going to have terrorists coming through the southern border. There's no question about it," he said.
The host challenged Trump, contending there has been no act of terrorism committed by someone crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
"You don't know that," Trump replied, adding later: "See what happens tomorrow. See what happens in two weeks from now. ... I'm not even talking about terrorists from this region. I'm talking about from the Middle East they can come in. The border is totally open."
Also on Thursday, Chilean actor-producer Cristian de la Fuente, the show's other co-host, had strong words for Trump: "It's a shame that such an important institution as Miss USA is now in the hands of a clown."
Singer-songwriter Ricky Martin also took to Twitter to blast Trump.
"A lot of hatred and ignorance in his heart," he tweeted.
Miss California USA Natasha Martinez was asked about Trump's comments during an interview Thursday on Los Angeles TV station KCAL and said they were "a little bit tough to hear."
"But I know that this opportunity for me as Miss California-USA, and now competing for Miss USA, is a great bridge to kind of represent my community and let the world know that I am a proud Latino-American," she said.
This year's UniMas telecast would have been the first in a five-year contract that Trump said "has no termination rights." Univision's wholly owned Spanish-language UniMas network, founded in 2013, is available in 70 million U.S. homes.
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