Conservative Blogger
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Biden reportedly using South Carolina vacation to size up possible White House run
Vice President Joe Biden is expected announce next month whether he will make a dramatic late entrance into the Democratic presidential race, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Biden was using part of his vacation in South Carolina this week to discuss the possibility of running for president with his family and friends. The paper reported that Biden is also sounding out political allies for advice and considering the strength of frontrunner Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"He’s taking input from a lot of people he cares about and respects," James Smith, a South Carolina legislator who says he has urged Biden to run, told the Journal. "He knows where I stand. It’s just got to be his decision."
Those who, like Smith, want Biden to run will have been encouraged by this week's poll of likely New Hampshire primary voters that showed upstart Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leading Clinton by seven points in the Granite State. Biden came in a distant third in a hypothetical primary match-up, but only 11 percent of respondents said they thought Sanders would win the Democratic nomination. In a worrying sign for the Clinton campaign, only 35 percent of likely voters said they were "excited" about her campaign and 36 percent said they had a "very" favorable opinion of the former secretary of state.
In addition to Clinton's tepid support, the Journal reports some Democratic activists are becoming concerned about her electability amid an ongoing controversy over her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state. On Tuesday, Clinton announced that she had directed aides to turn over the server to the Justice Department, which is conducting an ongoing investigation into whether classified information was improperly sent to or stored on the server.
"[The GOP] has an opportunity to drag this thing out until November 2016," a Democratic county auditor in South Carolina told the Journal about the investigation. "It’s not going to end."
The key question facing a possible Biden campaign is whether a possible September entry is already too late. Clinton, who declared her candidacy in April, already has a huge advantage in funding and organization. With less than six months to go before the Iowa caucuses, time may have already run out.
"Even people who like the idea of Joe Biden running would have to sit there and think, 'Can he build an operation that would be able to defeat Hillary in four to six months?' Charleston County (S.C.) Democratic Party chairman Brady Quirk-Garvan told the Journal. "That’s much harder to do in this day and age than you would think."
Biden has previously run for president twice. His candidacy for the 1988 Democratic nomination lasted just over three months and was dogged by a series of controversies over plagiarism in his speeches and during his time at law school. Biden ran for the nomination again in 2008, but withdrew after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucuses.
Calif. governor signs bill removing 'alien' from law
Idiot
Brown signed SB432 by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia. The new law takes effect next year. Mendoza said removing the term "alien" was an important step toward modernizing California law because it is now commonly considered a derogatory term with very negative connotations.
The state began using the term "alien" in 1937 to describe people who are not born or naturalized citizens in the United States.
In 1970, the Legislature repealed labor code that discriminated against immigrant workers by requiring that citizens be given preferential treatment for employment. However, the term can still be found in other portions of the labor code.
Brown, a Democrat, also approved AB554 by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, to allow high school students who are legal permanent residents to serve as poll workers in California elections. The state already allows adult legal residents to work precincts.
He signed AB560 by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, prohibiting the consideration of a child's immigration status in civil liability cases. The bill came after more than 80 elementary students sued the Los Angeles Unified School District over sexual misconduct by a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School.
State Dept. accused of stiff-arming intel watchdog over Hillary emails
Top U.S. intelligence officials are running out of patience with the State Department's reluctance to turn over emails from Hillary Clinton's private email server, which have already been shown to have included top secret communications, Fox News has learned.
The Intelligence Community's Inspector General has requested some 30,000 emails from Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State in order to conduct its own review. Those emails are in possession of the State Department, which has been gradually releasing them to the public.
Clinton has agreed to turn over a similar-sized batch of emails, as well as the highly unusual private server she had installed in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home, to the Department of Justice which is conducting a separate investigation.
An intelligence source told Fox News the State Department has pushed back on the government intelligence watchdog's request, and that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is considering intervening. The source said the inspector general wants to check the controls on the redaction process and ensure that the office can get a handle on all of the potentially sensitive information that was contained in the Clinton emails.
The flurry of activity came after Charles McCullough, the inspector general, notified senior members of Congress that two of four retroactively classified emails found on Clinton's server were deemed "Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information" — a rating that is the government's highest classifications.
Clinton, the former first lady, senator from New York and top diplomat now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, announced Tuesday that she had told aides to turn over the actual server to the Justice Department, giving in to months of demands that she relinquish the device she used to store her correspondence while secretary of state.
The State Department disputes McCullough's determination that the emails were classified at the time they were sent. McCullough had previously told Congress that potentially hundreds of classified emails are among the cache that Clinton provided to the State Department.
A State Department spokesman said Wednesday that the agency is still processing the emails Clinton initially turned over and took a veiled swipe at Grassley for disclosing what McCullough had said.
"The emails that have been discussed have not been released to public," said Deputy Press Secretary Mark Toner. "We are working to resolve if it is indeed classified [and] we are taking steps to make sure the information is protected and stored properly.
"These emails were not marked classified when they were sent," he added.
A source familiar with the investigation told Fox News late Tuesday that the two emails in question contained operational and geospatial intelligence from the CIA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which produces satellite images.
The FBI is investigating whether classified information was improperly sent via and stored on the so-called "home-brew" e-mail server she ran from her home in the New York City suburb after concerns were raised by McCullough. Investigators have said that the probe is not criminal in nature and have denied that Clinton is a target of their inquiries.
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said she has "pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them."
It's not clear if the device will yield any information — Clinton's attorney said in March that no emails from the main personal address she used while secretary of state still "reside on the server or on back-up systems associated with the server."
An intelligence source familiar with the matter told Fox News that the campaign's statement of cooperation was overblown, as the FBI had previously taken possession of a thumb drive containing sensitive emails that had been held by Clinton's personal attorney, David Kendall. The Associated Press reported that Kendall gave three thumb drives containing copies of roughly 30,000 work-related emails sent to and from Clinton's personal email address to the FBI after the agency determined he could not remain in possession of the classified information contained in some of the emails.
The AP's report cited a U.S. official briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The State Department previously had said it was comfortable with Kendall keeping the emails at his Washington law office.
Clinton had to this point refused demands from Republican critics to turn over the server to a third party, with Kendall telling the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that "there is no basis to support the proposed third-party review of the server." Clinton has also defended her use of the server, saying she used it as a matter of convenience to limit the number of electronic devices she had to carry.
Congressional Republicans seized on Clinton's reversal late Tuesday.
"It's about time," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio said in a statement. "Secretary Clinton's previous statements that she possessed no classified information were patently untrue. Her mishandling of classified information must be fully investigated."
"Secretary Clinton said she created this unusual email arrangement with herself for 'convenience.' It may have been convenient for her, but it has been troubling at multiple levels for the rest of the country," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the Benghazi select committee. "Secretary Clinton's decision to prioritize her own convenience - and desire for control - over the security of our country's intelligence should concern all people of good conscience."
There is no evidence Clinton used encryption to shield the emails or her personal server from foreign intelligence services or other potentially prying eyes. Kendall has said that Clinton is "actively cooperating" with the FBI inquiry.
In March, Clinton said she exchanged about 60,000 emails in her four years in the Obama administration, about half of which were personal and were discarded. She turned over the other half to the State Department in last December.
The department is reviewing those emails and has begun the process of releasing them to the public.
"As she has said, it is her hope that State and the other agencies involved in the review process will sort out as quickly as possible which emails are appropriate to release to the public, and that the release will be as timely and transparent as possible," Merrill said Tuesday.
Earlier this week, Clinton said in a sworn statement submitted to a federal judge that she has turned over to the State Department all emails from the server "that were or potentially were federal records." The statement, which carries her signature and was signed under penalty of perjury, echoed months of Clinton's past public statements about the matter.
2016 White House hopefuls ready to pitch their plans at the Iowa State Fair
WASHINGTON – It doesn’t get much more American than the Iowa State Fair – a place where butter is king, hog calling is sport and politicians are tested.
The fair, home to culinary gems like corn in a cup and fierce face-offs in the beard-growing competition kicks off Thursday in Des Moines and has become a perennial stop for presidential candidates looking to test drive their message and electability.
This year, 19 presidential hopefuls from both parties are gearing up to make the annual August pilgrimage, where they’ll be up-close and personal with voters like Bob Hemesath.
“It’s a very relaxed. It’s very open,” Hemesath told FoxNews.com. “It’s not a campaign stump speech. You have the opportunity to shake their hand. It’s a much more open, friendly atmosphere.”
Hemesath, a farmer from northwest Iowa, says he wants candidates to lay out their priorities and goals for the future of Iowa agriculture.
He also wants answers on where they stand on the renewable fuel standard. In May, the Environmental Protection Agency announced changes to how much corn-based ethanol and other biofuels can be mixed into gas and diesel. The new rules could change how Hemesath, like many others in the largely agricultural state, make a living.
The Iowa State Fair, first held in 1854, has turned into a venue where voters go for answers.
The event has grown both in popularity and political prominence. In 2002, attendance hit one million and since then, has passed the million mark 11 times.
This year, how Republican candidates come off could hold even more importance than in past years, Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, told FoxNews.com. In June, the Iowa Republican Party decided to officially scrap its high-profile presidential straw poll which had traditionally served as a test of a candidate’s popularity.
How a politician performs in Iowa, the crucial first-in-the-nation caucus state, can light a path to the White House or dash D.C. dreams.
This year, the challenge for the 17 Republicans in the running for the 2016 GOP nomination will be to find ways to set themselves apart from the pack. Bystrom says they’ll have to do it by striking just the right cord.
“What happened to the kinder, gentler Mike Huckabee?” she asked, referring to his performance, which some called caustic, at the first Republican presidential primary debate on Aug. 6.
Bystrom says candidates who play it positive and cut the controversy out of their 30-minute speeches will make the most impact with voters.
“It’s not a great venue for attacks,” she said. “It’s a family-friendly environment. Set an optimistic tone.”
The PG-rated tone also means candidates should think carefully before making any big policy statements or weighing in on controversial topics like Planned Parenthood and immigration, Bystrom added.
“Talk about your accomplishments,” she said. “What have they done and what will they do for Iowa?”
Among the GOP hopefuls vying for viewer attention are Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Wisconsin Gov.Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump.
A handful of Democrats, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will also attend.
Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, is not scheduled to appear.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
The Christian purge has begun: Chaplains banned from preaching that homosexuality is a sin
It wasn’t so much a choice as it was a demand.
Chaplain David Wells was told he could either sign a state-mandated document promising to never tell inmates that homosexuality is “sinful” or else the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice would revoke his credentials.
“We could not sign that paper,” Chaplain Wells told me in a telephone call from his home in Kentucky. “It broke my heart.”
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The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice revoked his volunteer credentials as an ordained minister – ending 13 years of ministry to underage inmates at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
Chaplain David Wells was told he could either sign a state-mandated document promising to never tell inmates that homosexuality is “sinful” or else the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice would revoke his credentials.“We sincerely appreciate your years of service and dedication to the youth served by this facility,” wrote Superintendent Gene Wade in a letter to Wells. “However, due to your decision, based on your religious convictions, that you cannot comply with the requirements outlined in DJJ Policy 912, Section IV, Paragraph H, regarding the treatment of LGBTQI youth, I must terminate your involvement as a religious volunteer.”
Wells said that every volunteer in their church received the letter – as did a Baptist church in a nearby community.
The Kentucky regulation clearly states that volunteers working with juveniles “shall not refer to juveniles by using derogatory language in a manner that conveys bias towards or hatred of the LGBTQI community. DJJ staff, volunteers, interns and contractors shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
For years, Wells and his team have conducted volunteer worship services and counseling to troubled young people – many of whom have been abused.
“I sat across the table from a 16-year-old boy who was weeping and broken over the life he was in,” Wells said. “He had been abused as a child and turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. He wanted to know if there was any hope for him.”
Wells said he had been abused as a young child – so he knew he could answer this young man’s question.
“I was able to look at him and tell him the saving power of Jesus Christ that delivered me – could deliver him,” he said.
But under the state’s 2014 anti-discrimination policy, Wells would not be allowed to have such a discussion should it delve into LGBT issues.
“They told us we could not preach that homosexuality is a sin – period,” Wells told me. “We would not have even been able to read Bible verses that dealt with LGBT issues.”
For the record, Wells said they’ve never used hateful or derogatory comments when dealing with the young inmates.
“They are defining hateful or derogatory as meaning what the Bible says about homosexuality,” he told me.
Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel, is representing Wells. He said the state’s ban on Biblical counseling is unconstitutional religious discrimination.
“There is no question there is a purging underway,” Staver told me. “The dissenters in the recent Supreme Court decision on gay marriage warned us this would happen.”
Staver is demanding the state immediately reinstate Wells as well as the other volunteer ministers.
“By restricting speech which volunteers are allowed to use while ministering to youth detainees, the State of Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice have violated the protections given to private speech through the First Amendment and the Kentucky Constitution,” Staver wrote in his letter to state officials.
He said the policy “requires affirmation of homosexuality as a precondition for ministers providing spiritual guidance to troubled youth, and singles out a particular theological viewpoint as expressly disfavored by the State of Kentucky.”
In other words – Kentucky has a religious litmus test when it comes to homosexuality – and according to the Lexington Herald-Leader – they aren’t going to back down.
The DJJ told the newspaper that the regulation “is neutral as to religion and requires respectful language toward youth by all staff, contractors and volunteers.”
State Sen. Gerald Neal, a Democrat, dared Christians to challenge the law in court.
“I’m just disappointed that the agendas by some are so narrow that they disregard the rights of others,” he told the newspaper. “Let them sue and let the courts settle it.”
Among those backing Wells is the American Pastors Network.
“Pastors and all Americans must wake up to the reality of expanding efforts to cleanse our nation of all moral truth,” APN President Sam Rohrer said in a statement. “When pastors and all Christians…are forced by government agents to renounce sharing the very reality of sin, they are in fact being prohibited from sharing the healing and life-changing potential of redemption.”
Folks, I warned you this would happen. The Christian purge has begun – and it’s only a matter of time before all of us will be forced to make the same decision Chaplain Wells had to make.
Will you follow God or the government?
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
Oath Keepers arrival at Ferguson protest ‘inflammatory,’ top cop says
Someone has to step up and do it.
Members of the group "Oath Keepers," an association of current and former soldiers or law enforcement and self-professed guardians of the Constitution, told Reuters they were there to provide protection for journalists from the conservative website Infowars.com. But like the police, the mostly African-American protesters seemed to find their presence provocative.
"I hope some black "oath keepers" show up tonight," read one tweet. Another user tweeted, "If oath keepers were black, they would have been killed by the trigger happy white cops."
Meanwhile, authorities arrested nearly two dozen people during a protest that stretched into early Tuesday, marking the anniversary of the Aug. 9, 2014, fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, although there was no repeat of the violence that scarred weekend demonstrations. Police and community leaders are desperately hoping to avoid a replay of the rioting that occurred after Brown was shot and again in November, after a grand jury declined to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
"Their presence was both unnecessary and inflammatory"On Tuesday, there were no shots fired and no burglaries, looting or property damage during the protest along West Florissant Avenue, St. Louis County police spokesman Shawn McGuire said. That thoroughfare was the focus of months of massive protests and sometimes violent unrest last summer after the killing of Brown by a Ferguson police officer. McGuire said approximately 23 arrests were made, though police were still confirming official totals.
- Jon Belmar, the St. Louis County police chief
"Their presence was both unnecessary and inflammatory," Jon Belmar, the St. Louis County police chief said, according to Reuters.
It was not the first time Oath Keepers went to Ferguson. In December, members were seen on rooftops and in the streets during protests. The Washington Post reported that members spoke of lending a sense of security to a small community in the national spotlight. Although in both instances, police have threatened arrest, no Oath Keepers were accused of breaking the law.
Founded by Yale Law graduate Stewart Rhodes, the group claims 35,000 members. In a 2008 manifesto, Rhodes warned that Americans will be left to protect themselves and their rights if a "police state comes to America."
"That is a harsh reality, but you had better come to terms with it now, and resolves to not let it happen on your watch," he wrote.
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