Ben Carson Cartoon

Hillary Clinton offers first apology for private email server

Hillary Clinton offered her first apology for using a private email server while secretary of state, calling it a “mistake” in an interview that aired Tuesday.
“Even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails,” she told ABC News. ”That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.”
The comments came just a day after Clinton told the Associated Press she did not need to apologize for her actions because “what I did was allowed.”
At the State Department's request, Clinton has turned over 55,000 pages of work-related emails last year, while the FBI has also taken possession of the server after Clinton resisted giving up until last month.
When asked by ABC News if she could survive the ongoing FBI investigation, Clinton cited her lengthy existence on the political stage.
“As you might guess I’ve been around a while, lots of attacks, questions raised. I can survive it because I’m running to be president, to do what the country needs done,” Clinton told ABC. “I believe the American people will respond to that.”
But just as the interview aired, Clinton’s apology already came under fire.
“The only thing Hillary Clinton regrets is that she got caught and is dropping in the polls, not the fact her secret email server left classified information exposed to the Russians and Chinese,” RNC National Press Secretary Allison Moore said in a statement. “Hillary Clinton’s reckless attempt to skirt government transparency laws put our national security at risk and shows she cannot be trusted in the White House.”
Clinton became emotional after she was asked about her mother’s influence on her campaign.
“She told me every day, you got to get up and fight for what you believe in no matter how hard it is,” Clinton said. “And I don’t want to just fight for me. I mean I can have a perfectly fine life not being a president. I want to fight for all the people like my mother who cares who needs somebody in their corner.”
The former secretary of state restated her apology in a note to supporters on her Facebook page late Tuesday, but also called her use of a personal e-mail account  "aboveboard and allowed under the State Department's rules.
"Everyone I communicated with in government was aware of it," Clinton added. Later in the note, she said, "I know this is a complex story. I could have—and should have—done a better job answering questions earlier."
Clinton’s latest efforts to explain the private email server controversy has continued to sometimes overshadow her presidential campaign, with multiple polls showing a majority of Americans don’t find her honest and trustworthy.
In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 61 percent of voters said they did not consider Clinton honest and trustworthy compared to 34 percent who did ascribe those qualities to her.
Clinton also has her status as the Democratic front-runner on the line, as the latest NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday showed Sen. Bernie Sanders with a 9-point lead over her in New Hampshire.
The polls also showed Sanders, a Vermont Independent, gaining ground on Clinton in Iowa.
The states -- Iowa and New Hampshire -- are the first and second, respectively, to hold 2016 primary vote, where the outcomes of those ballots often determine the future of the presidential campaigns.

Ben Carson calls for guest-worker status for immigrants

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson jabbed Tuesday at front-runner Donald Trump's proposal to deport everyone who is in the country illegally, calling the plan impractical.

"People who say that have no idea what that would entail" legally and otherwise, Carson said, adding: "Where you going to send them?"

The retired neurosurgeon spoke before The Commonwealth Club of California on Tuesday in a 75-minute event in which he took questions from the audience on topics ranging from abortion to immigration, taxation to race relations.

Carson's longshot candidacy is buoyed by humor and a self-deprecating demeanor that some would-be voters say they find refreshing. Trump, the brash front-runner in the GOP nomination fight, has made immigration a centerpiece of his candidacy. Trump says he would deport those living in the country illegally — estimated at 11 million people.

Carson said he would secure the border, but also grant guest-worker status to people who are in the country without documentation. That way, they can pay taxes and come out from the shadows, he said.
Mass deportation, he said, would be expensive and impractical, and crippling to the hotel and agriculture industries.

San Francisco venture capitalist Scott Russell, an unaffiliated voter, called Carson charismatic, yet positive.

"He wasn't trying to attack other candidates or trying to say negative things," Russell said. "I like people who describe their policies, but don't spend their minutes trying to attack others."

Carson is scheduled to attend a rally in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday.

White House considering ‘resettlement,’ other options for refugee crisis

The White House has to be Kidding us, right? We can't control our own borders as it is!

The Obama administration is "actively considering" options for addressing the global refugee crisis, including the possibility of "refugee resettlement," the White House said Tuesday. 
Without going into specifics, White House officials said the State Department is leading a "reconsideration" of how best to deal with the flood of refugees into Europe and elsewhere.
"There is no denying that the situation that many of our European partners are confronting right now is a significant one," Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. National Security Council spokesman Peter Boogaard also said the administration is in "regular contact" with countries in the Middle East and Europe grappling with the influx of more than 340,000 people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
"The Administration is actively considering a range of approaches to be more responsive to the global refugee crisis, including with regard to refugee resettlement," he said in a statement.
The comments come as the U.S. government faces rising international pressure to accept more refugees, many of whom are fleeing the civil war in Syria and areas in Iraq under the control of Islamic State militants.
Countries like Jordan and Turkey have absorbed the bulk of the refugees, and European countries are now facing a huge influx. The U.S. so far has accepted a limited number of Syria refugees -- a State Department spokesman last week said they likely would admit up to 1,800 refugees for permanent resettlement by the end of the fiscal year.
Without issuing any new estimates for refugee resettlement, White House officials on Tuesday stressed that the U.S. has provided over $4 billion in humanitarian assistance since the Syrian crisis began, and over $1 billion in assistance this year.
Any consideration of allowing more refugees into the United States, though, will be accompanied by concerns in Washington about security.
Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a statement Tuesday that "it doesn't make sense from a logistical or a security standpoint to move large numbers of them to far-off countries like the United States."
"Ultimately, we need to address the cause of this crisis or we will just have more and more migrants displaced," he said.
Earnest acknowledged Tuesday that safety and security would be taken into account in any resettlement effort.
The U.S. has sometimes expedited resettlement, as it did in 1975, when it helped tens of thousands of refugees from South Vietnam and other nearby areas settle in the United States after the fall of Saigon.
But for fiscal year 2015, which began Oct. 1, the U.S. government authorized 70,000 refugees to be resettled in the United States. The cap is set by the White House, which works with Congress and takes into account funding and the potential social and economic impact of refugees in the country.

Report: Patriots' Spygate scandal was bigger in scope than first realized

An ESPN story claims Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing coaches signals as far back as 2000.  …

As it turns out, Spygate had a larger scope than we realized.

ESPN had a huge story on Tuesday, saying when the league investigated the New England Patriots in 2007 they were found to have "a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents' signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons." There were 40 games worth of tapes, ESPN said.
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The tapes and notes were found, and then destroyed on commissioner Roger Goodell's orders: league executives "stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette Stadium conference room," the ESPN story said.
And this all leads us back to deflate-gate, and Goodell's overreaction to it.
The story said owners were upset with how Goodell handled Spygate. It's no secret to anyone anymore that Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been one of Goodell's biggest allies. In an emergency session at the league's spring meetings in 2008, Goodell told the owners that cheaters would be dealt with forcefully, ESPN wrote. One owner told ESPN that deflate-gate was "a makeup call" for the spying scandal.
Goodell, on ESPN Radio less than an hour after the Spygate story was published, said he hadn't seen the story but Spygate had nothing to do with the current scandal.
"I’m not aware of any connection between the Spygate procedures and the procedures we went through here," Goodell told ESPN Radio. "We obviously learn any time we go through a process, try to improve it and get better at it, but there’s no connection in my mind to the two instances."
The ESPN story goes into detail about how the Patriots allegedly used the taped information, highlighting a 2000 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the preseason, the Patriots allegedly taped the Buccaneers' defensive signals. New England played Tampa Bay in the season opener. Backup quarterback John Friesz was told to memorize the signals in the preseason film, watch the Bucs' signals from the sideline during the regular-season game, relay the defensive play to offensive coordinator Charlie Weis who would relay them to then-starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe, ESPN reported. Although the Patriots lost that game, ESPN said the Patriots knew 75 percent of the Buccaneers' defenses that day and the Pats "realized that they were on to something." A former Patriots assistant, who wasn't named, told ESPN the system of videotaping signals and cataloging signals "got out of control."
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Maybe the most shocking tale comes deep in the story, after all the descriptions of the Patriots' spying, when former New England coaches and employees are cited as describing an even more effective cheating system:

"Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team's offense."

Maybe you thought deflate-gate was dying down. Nobody figured on Spygate getting more fuel, eight years after the fact.
UPDATE — The Patriots responded to the ESPN story. Here's the team's statement, via CSNNE:
“The New England Patriots have never filmed or recorded another team’s practice or walkthrough. The first time we ever heard of such an accusation came in 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII, when the Boston Herald reported an allegation from a disgruntled former employee. That report created a media firestorm that extended globally and was discussed incessantly for months. It took four months before that newspaper retracted its story and offered the team a front and back page apology for the damage done. Clearly, the damage has been irreparable. As recently as last month, over seven years after the retraction and apology was issued, ESPN issued the following apology to the Patriots for continuing to perpetuate the myth: ‘On two occasions in recent weeks, SportsCenter incorrectly cited a 2002 report regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI. That story was found to be false, and should not have been part of our reporting. We apologize to the Patriots organization.’
“This type of reporting over the past seven years has led to additional unfounded, unwarranted and, quite frankly, unbelievable allegations by former players, coaches and executives. None of which have ever been substantiated, but many of which continue to be propagated. The New England Patriots are led by an owner whose well-documented efforts on league-wide initiatives – from TV contracts to preventing a work stoppage – have earned him the reputation as one of the best in the NFL. For the past 16 years, the Patriots have been led by one of the league’s all-time greatest coaches and one of its all-time greatest quarterbacks. It is disappointing that some choose to believe in myths, conjecture and rumors rather than giving credit for the team’s successes to Coach Belichick, his staff and the players for their hard work, attention to detail, methodical weekly preparation, diligence and overall performance.”

Spending Cartoon

Congress returns to tight deadlines, key votes on Iran deal, Planned Parenthood

Congress returns Tuesday to face several key decisions and short-term deadlines -- including votes on the Iran nuclear deal and a spending bill that if connected to efforts to defund Planned Parenthood creates the potential for another government shutdown.
The House and Senate could vote as early as this week on the Iran deal.
Both GOP-controlled chambers are expected to pass motions of disapproval for the deal. But President Obama is expected to veto the motions and ultimately complete his historic foreign policy deal because neither chamber has the two-thirds majority to override the presidential veto.
Republicans argue the deal, in which Iran will curtail its nuclear development program in exchange for the easing of billions of dollars worth of economic sanctions, gives too many concessions to the rogue nation.
GOP leaders are playing down talk of a government shutdown that's being driven by conservative lawmakers determined to use the spending legislation to strip funds from Planned Parenthood.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in fact, suggested last week that such an effort is pointless because Obama would reject any such bill.
“The way you make a law in this country (is) the Congress has to pass it, and the president has to sign it,” McConnell told WYMT-TV, in his home state.
“The president's made it very clear he's not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood -- so that's another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view.”
The president must sign a stopgap spending bill by Sept. 30 to keep the federal government fully operational.
Still, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, a 2016 presidential candidate and one of Congress’ most conservative members, appears to be going ahead with a defunding effort, asking McConnell not to schedule a vote on the issue.
Republicans were blamed for the Cruz-led partial shutdown in 2013 over ObamaCare, but neither party wants to risk being blamed for another one in a presidential election year.
Planned Parenthood is under intense scrutiny after secretly recorded videos raised uncomfortable questions about its practices in procuring research tissue from aborted fetuses.
The first days for Congress, after a roughly eight-week summer break, also are expected to include efforts to increase the government's borrowing authority and avoid a first-ever federal default.
Members also will try to reach a deal on a long-sought highway bill, consider extending roughly 50 tax breaks, pass a defense policy bill that Obama has threatened to veto and renew the Federal Aviation Administration's authority to spend money.
House GOP leaders are expected to try to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding without creating the possibility of a shutdown, as Pope Francis plans to speak on Capitol Hill on Sept. 24.
They have been considering separate legislation this month cutting Planned Parenthood's funds, a GOP aide and a lobbyist said.
The leaders hope such a bill, which would advance free of a filibuster threat by Senate Democrats, would satisfy Planned Parenthood's opponents and free up the temporary government funding bill.
Obama would almost certain veto that bill, too. But it would allow Republicans to vote for the changes and make a case for electing a GOP president to institute them.
Facing demands for negotiations to lift domestic agency budgets hit by the return of automatic spending cuts, known as sequester, McConnell has signaled that he is open to talks on a deal that would pair increases for domestic programs with budget relief for the Pentagon.
To get to an agreement, however, Republicans must strike a deal with Obama and his Democratic allies over companion spending cuts elsewhere in the budget to defray the cost of new spending for the Pentagon and domestic programs.
There's a limited pool of such offsets, at least those with an acceptable level of political pain, and considerable competition over what to spend them on.
For instance, McConnell helped assemble a 10-year, $47 billion offsets package to pay for a Senate bill with small increases for highway and transit programs. Democrats are eyeing the same set of cuts to pay for boosting domestic agencies.
No one is underestimating the difficulty in reaching an agreement.
Speculation is growing that Republicans will try to advance a bill that would keep most federal agencies operating at current budget levels, with only a few changes for the most pressing programs. The White House has pledged to block that idea.
One potential glimmer of hope for the talks is that earlier this year Republicans reversed a position they held in talks two years ago and declared that additional defense spending doesn't require companion spending cuts.
Congress also needs to raise the government's $18.1 trillion borrowing cap by mid-November or early December, an uncomfortable prospect for GOP leaders already facing potshots from Tea Party purists and Republican presidential candidates as next year's nomination contests loom.

Hundreds of police officers attend funeral for slain Illinois lieutenant

ANTIOCH, Ill. –  Several hundred police officers from around the country attended a funeral Monday for a suburban Chicago lieutenant shot and killed last week, and residents of the area turned out by the thousands to watch the hearse go by.
Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, who was 52 and on the cusp of retirement after more than 30 years with the Fox Lake Police Department, was shot and killed shortly after he radioed in that he was chasing three suspicious men on foot.
His more than mile-long funeral procession wound through small-town Fox Lake and lakeside forests that were the focus of a manhunt for the still at-large suspects. Fox Lake is a close-knit village of around 10,000 people and located about 50 miles north of Chicago.
Many of those looking on from the roadside applauded as the procession went by. Blue ribbons — a mark of respect for police — were tied to trees along the way. Pictures of the officer were placed along the route. And one person held a up a sign that read, "You will never be forgotten."
Gliniewicz's wife, Mel, wore a police badge on a necklace at funeral services earlier at a high school auditorium in Antioch, her husband's hometown not far from Fox Lake. Mourners walked by his flag-draped coffin, many hugging his wife and their four sons.
Fox Lake's recently retired police chief recalled Gliniewicz's fondness for the phrase "embrace the suck," about dealing with difficult tasks. "Now we're doing it today," Michael Behan told the packed auditorium about Gliniewicz's funeral.
While most people run from danger, Gliniewicz ran toward it, Joliet Police Officer Rachel Smithberg said.
"Every day he put on his uniform and said, 'Send me,'" she said, a few feet away from Gliniewicz's open casket.
Gliniewicz, who also served in the U.S. Army, told dispatchers last Tuesday that three men ran into a swampy area and requested a second unit. He died from a gunshot wound shortly after backup officers found him about 50 yards from his squad car.
Attendees at the service included Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and his wife, Diana, both of whom also hugged Gliniewicz's wife and kids.
On a stage next to the coffin was a policeman's uniform and medals pinned to it. Part of the display included a statue of a soldier, standing at attention and clutching a rifle.
Bagpipers performed as pallbearers placed the casket in the hearse at the start of the 18-mile procession to Fox Lake and then back to Antioch, where Gliniewicz was to be buried later Monday at Antioch's Hillside East Cemetery.