School Dress Code Cartoon

School says Air Force logo violates dress code

A Texas school district threatened to punish two patriotic sisters who refused to remove hoodie-style jackets emblazoned with the U.S. Air Force logo.
“It’s political correctness run amuck,” said Phillip Rolen.
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His twin daughters were told that the Air Force logo violated the dress code policy of the Aubrey Independent School District. The 11-year-old girls were told they could face disciplinary action if they wore the jackets on school property.
“These girls were born on an Air Force base so you can imagine my reaction,” Mr. Rolen told me. “It’s absurd.”
Mr. Rolen and his wife are Air Force veterans who raised their daughters in a “pro-military environment.”
“I’m patriotic,” he said. “Military tradition is rich in our family.
I reached out to the school to get their side of the story, but no one returned my telephone calls.
In a statement to the NBC television affiliate in Dallas the school district defended itself against accusations they were being unpatriotic.
“Aubrey ISD has a student dress code to follow, just as our military personnel are expected to wear uniforms,” Superintendent Debby Sanders said in the statement. “The dress code, which has been in place for over a decade, instills pride, discipline and levels the playing field for students to allow them to focus on learning.”
According to the district, all logos must be smaller than 1 ½-inch by 1 ½ inches. Outerwear that has larger logos must be left in lockers during school hours.
Mr. Rolen said his daughters were “bummed out” by the controversy.
He said they had purchased the jackets with money they made by selling cakes in a jar.
“They wanted to use their own money to buy their winter coats,” he explained. “They have a sense of pride in the military.”
He said his daughters have decided they will continue to wear the Air Force jackets – even if it means getting suspended from school.
“I told the school that we’re going to fight this,” he said.
But for now the patriotic twins will not be wearing their Air Force jackets to class. But it’s not because they’re afraid of being punished. It’s because the temperature in Aubrey is expected to be 90 degrees.
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.

Iran parliament votes to support implementing nuclear deal

TEHRAN, Iran –  Iran's parliament voted on Tuesday to support implementing the nuclear deal it struck with world powers, sending the measure to a council of senior clerics for who will review the accord before its final approval.
The 12-member Guardian Council could send the bill, which allows Iran to back out of the nuclear pact if sanctions are imposed or not lifted, back to parliament to reconsider. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on key policies, has said it is up to the 290-seat parliament to approve or reject the deal.
In the session carried live by state radio, 161 lawmakers on hand voted for the nuclear deal, while 59 voted against it and 13 abstained. Another 17 did not vote at all, while 40 lawmakers did not attend the session.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday when the Guardian Council would issue its own decision.
The bill gives the right of implementing the deal to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the top security body of the country that President Hassan Rouhani heads. Khamenei himself has not publicly supported or disapproved of the deal, though he offered encouragement for the Islamic Republic's diplomats throughout the months of negotiations over it.
Discussion of the bill in the parliament had been unusually tense, with hard-liners repeatedly trying to prevent a vote on the deal. Hard-liners hope to stall the deal in order to weaken Rouhani's moderate administration ahead of February's parliamentary elections.
During Tuesday's session, hard-liners claimed the bill had no support from Khamenei and tried to delay vote by raising numerous proposals on its details. Iran's official IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left the session after it got tense.
A preliminary parliamentary vote Sunday saw 139 lawmakers out of the 253 present supported the outline of the bill.
The deal calls for limiting Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. The accord came after nearly two years of negotiations between Iran and world powers including the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.
The West long has suspected Iran's nuclear program has a military dimension. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, like power generation and medical treatments.

Clinton slams Trump at union protest outside mogul's Las Vegas casino

Hours before Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, front-runner Hillary Clinton ripped into Republican contender Donald Trump at a union rally outside one of the businessman's own casinos.
Clinton, clad in a red shirt that matched the crimson-clad workers of the politically potent Culinary Workers Union, urged the workers to "say 'No' to Donald Trump."
"Some people say Donald Trump is entertaining," Clinton said. "I don't think it's entertaining when someone insults immigrants, when someone insults women."
The former secretary of state was the only one of the five Democratic candidates appearing in the debate to attend the rally. All had been invited by the union.
"I wanted to come by to lend my voice to all yours and I wish you well in these efforts,' Clinton said in a brief speech.
The union has been trying to organize the Trump hotel for more than a year. The union says it was approached by some of the 500 restaurant workers and maids at the hotel who wanted representation.
"Mr. Trump said, 'Make America great,'" Maria Jaramillo, a housekeeper who's worked at the hotel for six years, said at the rally. "The Trump workers say, 'Start it here!'"
Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump organization and the presidential candidate's son, said workers at the hotel are largely happy.
"For years the union in Las Vegas has been trying to unionize this hotel, and they have been incredibly unsuccessful," Trump said. "We have an incredible group of employees who have categorically rejected unionization."
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short mocked Clinton's appearance at the union  rally, saying, "These union workers must be relieved that Hillary Clinton's private jet got her to Las Vegas just in time to pander to them.
"The truth is, rank and file union members aren’t running to Hillary Clinton’s side after seeing her politically-motivated flip flops on trade, health care, and the Keystone Pipeline," Short added. "Their guess about where Hillary Clinton will stand the next time the political winds shift is as good as anyone else’s."

DNC vice chairwoman says she was disinvited from Democratic debate

A congresswoman known for taking on her own party is in a scrap with party leaders again, saying she was disinvited to Tuesday’s Democratic debate after calling for more of them.
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who serves as a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, told the New York Times on Sunday that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s chief of staff rescinded the invitation just a day after Gabbard appeared on MSNBC calling for more than the currently scheduled six debates.
A DNC spokeswoman said Gabbard was not “uninvited,” but was asked to keep the focus on the candidates.
“The focus of the debate in Nevada as well as the other debates and forums in the coming weeks should be on the candidates who will take the stage, and their vision to move America forward,” said Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the DNC. “All that was asked of Ms. Gabbard’s staff was to prioritize our candidates and this important opportunity they have to introduce themselves to the American people.”
Shulman told FoxNews.com the Democratic Party “is a big-tent party” that embraces its members’ “diversity of opinions and ideas.”
Gabbard and R.T. Rybak, vice chairs of the DNC, had issued a joint statement calling the DNC’s decision to limit presidential candidates to six debates a “mistake.”
“It limits the ability of the American people to benefit from a strong, transparent, vigorous debate between our Presidential candidates, as they make the important decision of who will be our Democratic Presidential nominee,” Gabbard and Rybak said.
It was not immediately clear if Rybak also suffered any fallout from the statement.
Gabbard, a twice-deployed 33-year-old Army combat veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, was unavailable for comment Monday because she was participating in a ceremony promoting her to military police major with the Army National Guard.
Gabbard has taken on her party leaders before, including President Barack Obama over investing $500 million to train and arm Syrian rebels.
Gabbard also challenged the president, her home state's favorite son, last February over his refusal to identify terror groups like the Islamic State as driven by "radical Islam.”
Gabbard’s spokeswoman said the congresswoman will watch the debate on television from her home in Hawaii.

Sanders Cartoon

Sanders, O'Malley jab Clinton ahead of first Democratic debate

Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday staked out their positions against front-runner Hillary Clinton ahead of the party’s first primary debate, challenging her stances of such issues as trade, domestic oil and gay marriage.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, ahead of the debate Tuesday, made the case that he has been steady in his views on U.S. trade deals and other policy issues while Clinton, a former secretary of state, has flip-flopped.
“People will have to contrast my consistency against the secretary’s,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Sanders, Clinton’s closest challenger, also argued that he has never liked a single U.S. trade deal, while Clinton last week opposed President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which she backed as the country’s top diplomat.
Clinton leads Sanders, an Independent, by double digits in essentially every national poll, but trails him 41-to-32 percent among likely Democratic voters in early-voting state New Hampshire, according to a NBC News/Marist poll released last week.
Vice President Joe Biden, who still has an open invitation to join Tuesday’s debate from host CNN, got 16 percent in New Hampshire, in the poll.
Reporters are essentially following Biden’s every public move this weekend in his home state of Delaware should he make an unscheduled announcement about his plans.
While Clinton and Sanders have so far declined to attack each other and are not expected to during the debate, the other Democratic candidates will likely be much more aggressive.
"I didn't shift positions right on the eve of the first Democratic debate," challenger and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said about Clinton on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Clinton also has shifted her support for same-sex marriage and more recently opposed the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, moves largely considered attempts to appeal to the more liberal or progressive voters attracted to Sanders, a Socialist.
O’Malley, who also opposes the TPP trade deal, is polling at about 1 or 2 percent, according to essentially every major survey.
O’Malley, Clinton and Sanders -- who are all calling for more gun control in the wake of another mass shooting on campus -- will be joined on the debate stage in Las Vegas by former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island governor and Sen. Lincoln Chaffee.
Webb and Chaffee also are polling at about 1 percent.
O'Malley also told CNN that he’s not worried about his low poll numbers heading into the CNN/Facebook Democratic debate.
"This race is really just beginning for the Democratic Party," he said.
Also on Sunday, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, said the party is open to a Biden run.
O’Malley has criticized the DNC and its leader for not having more than six sanctioned debates, suggesting the limited number protects the front-running Clinton. Sanders has called for more debates, too.

Powerful, conservative Republican caucus open to Ryan as next speaker

The leader of the House Republicans’ most powerful conservative caucus said Sunday that his group would consider Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan as the chamber’s next speaker.
“Paul Ryan is a good man,” Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told “Fox News Sunday.” “If he gets in the race, certainly our group would look favorably on him.”
The caucus, which was influential in ousting House Speaker John Boehner last month, has officially endorsed Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, one of the caucus' roughly 40 members.
However, Jordan said the group would consider Ryan, who as a veteran House committee chairman and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate is now widely considered the Republicans' best choice to unite the fractured caucus and become the next speaker.
Ryan, now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has so far declined to accept invitations, even from Boehner and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
However, he appears to be considering his options while Congress is in recess this week.
Jordan on Sunday said that Ryan -- or whoever becomes the next speaker -- can no longer run the chamber from an authoritarian, top-down style.
“No more business as usual,” said Jordan, whose group wants to see more bills from rank-and-file members get full floor votes and House leaders awarding committee chairmanships to a wider range of members.
He pointed out that in 2012 Boehner removed conservative Rep. Tim Huelskamp, of Kansas, from assignments on the Budget and Agriculture committees, after Huelskamp voted against a budget proposed by Ryan, who was then the Budget committee chairman.
“That kind of stuff has to stop,” Jordan said. “This place has got to change.”
Jordan also dismissed criticism that his group refuses to compromise on a new leader, despite having only about 40 of the 218 votes needed to appoint a House speaker.
The GOP House conference postponed its internal speakership vote last week after the presumptive favorite, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abruptly quit the race, amid speculation he didn’t have the support or votes. However, the full chamber vote is still scheduled for Oct. 29.
“Of course we’re willing to compromise,” Jordan said.