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| Sheriff is up from re-election, no joke. |
Conservative Blogger
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Ted Cruz Brings in Huge Fundraising Numbers After Amazing Performance in CNBC Debate
There’s little doubt in my mind Sen. Ted Cruz totally OWNED the GOP debate on CNBC Wednesday night, completely dismantling the media and the moderators in an inspiring moment that will no doubt be talked about for years to come.
While Cruz’s comments will likely cause him to surge a bit in the polls — we’ll know for sure in a few days — the Texas senator saw another kind of spike due to his performance last night.
Cruz’s fundraising efforts drew in a whopping $772,000 after the debate.
Here are the details.
Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign says it is raking in some major cash after Wednesday’s Republican debate in Colorado.Fundraising is definitely one of the strong points of Cruz’s campaign as is evidenced by the $1 million he brought in just 100 hours after the first debate in August.
Cruz brought in $772,000 as of midnight Wednesday, a campaign aide told NBC News.
The Texas senator had one of the most memorable moments of the third GOP debate when he lambasted the CNBC moderators for their questions.
“The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” Cruz said to raucous applause. “This is not a cage match.”
While Cruz has sort of chugged along in the polls, I think Wednesday night was his break out moment, as he seized an opportunity to smack the liberal media, proving he’s a man who will stand on principle, regardless of the consequences.
The fact people — grassroots kind of folk — are willing to shell out so much money to the guy, is proof he resonates with a great deal of Americans, he just hasn’t gotten the chance to really express what’s he about in the debates.
Until now.
With impressive fundraising numbers like these, it’ll be interesting to see what his poll numbers look like after that epic debate line.
Trump and Carson are in for some competition! http://www.youngcons.com/
Donald Trump vows to take on ‘corrupt’ Veterans Affairs
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made a new pitch Saturday to veterans, promising them that he’ll take on the “corrupt” and incompetent” Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump told a crowd of supporters in front of the U.S.S. Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va., that the department is mismanaged and "not efficient.”
“We're going to replace them with more effective ones to get our veterans working, which is what they want to do,” Trump said. “We're going to transform the VA to meet the needs of the current veterans. Exposing and addressing the VA's inefficiencies and shortcomings will be rewarded, not punished. We're going to find out why its' going bad and we're going to fix it."
The Trump campaign released a more detailed policy plan after the rally.
"Over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care,” the statement in part read. “Corruption and incompetence were excused. Politicians in Washington have done too little too slowly to fix it."
The Department of Veterans Affairs didn't immediately return a FoxNews.com request for comment.
A 2012 Government Accountability Office report found that the Veterans Health Administration, a component of the VA had labeled their outpatient medical-appointment wait times as "unreliable."
In the wake of a congressional investigation into the agency's mishaps, Congress last year approved a $16.3 billion reform package to overhaul the department's actions.
Though mismanagement has seemed to continue at the VA. This July, officials announced they couldn't count how many veterans died while waiting to sign up for health care benefits.
Since announcing his White House run, Trump has touted his support for helping veterans. As a businessman, he says his experience can help improve the ability for those leaving the battlefield to find work.
"We're going to increase funding for job training and services for companies hiring veterans, and they're getting a great deal because they get incentive and they hire the best people," he told supporters. "We're going to give educational support ... service members have learned valuable skills in the military. But many need help understanding how to apply those skills in civilian life ... others know how to apply those skills, but need help connecting with good jobs to support their families.”
The current job market for veterans appears to be stronger than for the wider public.
While the national unemployment rate sits at 5.1 percent, the rate for all veterans is lower than the national average at 4.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Though, specifically for veterans who enlisted after the September 11th terror attacks, the figure is slightly higher at 4.7 percent.
“The VA is lacking two things -- accountability and managers who understand how to manage an enterprise," retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, who served more than 30 years in the military, said Saturday. "Should Trump bring in 'best practices' of what has worked in his Trump business empire, there is no doubt that he could not make the current situation in the VA any worse -- and chances are he could actually move the agency toward accountability and efficiency."
Highlights of the policy plan also include all veterans eligible for VA health care being allowed to bring their veteran’s ID card to any doctor or care facility that accepts Medicare to get the care they need immediately. Another is to increase funding for job training and placement services (including incentives for companies hiring veterans), educational support and business loans.
Trump wants to reform the VA by firing “the corrupt and incompetent VA executives that let our veterans down,” according to his plan.
“Under a Trump Administration, there will be no job security for VA executives that enabled or overlooked corruption and incompetence,” the policy statements says.
Email shows Clinton's State Department cautioned about blaming Benghazi attack on video
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| Look at all the Cattle in the background. |
The email was sent three days after the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, and two days before then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice went on TV to say the attacks were inspired by the anti-Islamic video.
The email -- released by the GOP-led House Select Committee on Benghazi -- was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, to the State Department, which Clinton led from 2009 to 2013. But the names of the exact sender and receiver have been redacted.
“The film’s not as explosive of an issue here as it appears to be in other countries in the region,” the unknown sender wrote. “And it is becoming increasingly clear that the series of events in Benghazi was much more terrorist attack than a protest, which escalated into violence.
“It is our opinion that in our messaging, we want to distinguish, not conflate, the events in other countries with this well planned attack by militant extremists.”
The official writes the suggestion to Washington was based on monitoring the Libyan media, comments on such social media sites as Facebook and Twitter and talking to residents, who expressed “sorrow” about the attacks and “anger” toward the attackers.
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attacks.
Clinton, now the front-running 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, has testified at least twice before Congress on the Benghazi matter, including earlier this month before the select committee.
When asked during a 2013 Senate hearing about what sparked the attacks, Clinton responded: “The fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?"
“It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.”
On Saturday, select committee spokesman Matt Wolking told FoxNews.com that the email was not part of the batch released Friday by the State Department.
“This email shows that State Department staff privately raised serious concerns about conflating the terrorist attacks in Benghazi with a video,” he also said in a statement, “even as the secretary of state and other Obama administration officials continued to do so publicly.”
Wolking also argued that a former CIA chief said intelligence analysts never said the video was a factor.
“So while Secretary Clinton may use the ‘fog of war’ as a convenient excuse for why she said one thing in private and something else in public, the reality is that’s just another smokescreen,” Wolking said.
San Francisco sheriff at center of sanctuary city debate faces reelection
SAN FRANCISCO – Only two incumbent San Francisco sheriffs have lost re-election in the last 60 years -- but Ross Mirkarimi is facing a tough battle Tuesday to avoid being the third.
The San Francisco sheriff's office has been in the spotlight since a Mexican national in the country illegally was accused in the fatal shooting of a San Francisco woman this summer. The man had been released from Mirkarimi's jail even though federal immigration officials had requested that he be detained.
Also, Mirkarimi has endured a series of personal and official embarrassments, including having his driver's license briefly suspended and flunking a marksmanship test that prevents him from carrying a service weapon.
"I'm in the redemption industry," said Mirkarimi, 54, who launched the Green Party in California before changing his voter registration to Democrat. "I believe in second chances."
His opponent, retired sheriff's official Vicki Hennessy, 62, is running a low-key campaign -- her first -- hoping to capitalize on Mirkarimi's negative image.
"The department needs leadership," Hennessy said. "It needs its credibility restored."
The latest campaign contribution disclosures show that she has raised $286,000 to his $109,000 and won the endorsements of the unions representing the county jail's sworn officers. Hennessy is also supported by the mayor.
Mirkarimi, who served for eight years on the city's Board of Supervisors, has won the endorsement of the previous sheriff, who served for 32 years before retiring in 2011. Former Mayor Art Agnos also has endorsed Mirkarimi, who points to the success of the jail's high school and the dramatic reduction of the inmate population as major accomplishments.
Hennessy said she was encouraged to enter the race by Mayor Ed Lee and others because of Mirkarimi's stumbles, which began when he bruised his wife's arm during a New Year's Eve argument in 2011.
"I never expected to run," said Hennessy, who joined the sheriff's department in 1975 and rose to chief deputy, the third-highest ranking position in the office. The San Francisco native retired five years ago after directing the city's emergency services agency. She is married to a retired San Francisco police officer and mother to an adult son and daughter.
Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor false imprisonment charge on March 13, 2012, and was placed on three years of probation. Lee suspended him a week later, saying he intended to remove him permanently. Lee appointed Hennessy as interim sheriff until the San Francisco Board of Supervisors narrowly rejected Lee's attempt to remove Mirkarimi from office in October 2012.
Today, Mirkarimi and his wife, Eliana Lopez, campaign together at commuter train stops, coffee shops and marijuana dispensaries.
Lopez opposed the prosecution of her husband, saying the criminal case was politically motivated.
"I am not a victim," said Lopez, a Venezuelan-born actress who turned the incident into a one-woman play. The couple has a 6-year-old son.
The pivotal issue in the race is the city's policy of shielding people in the country illegally from the reach of federal immigration officials. Mirkarimi's interpretation of the policy came under scrutiny following the March jail release of an inmate despite a federal immigration request to detain him for possible deportation. A few months later on July 2, the Mexican national is alleged to have shot to death Kate Steinle, 32, as she walked with her father along San Francisco's waterfront.
Mirkarimi said city law prohibits the department from cooperating with federal immigration officials unless they have a warrant, a position criticized by presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton along with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and the mayor.
Hennessy said the sheriff's order barring the San Francisco jail from cooperating with immigration officials is misguided. There are cases, she said, when federal immigration officials should be notified that the jail is about to release an inmate who is in the country illegally.
But Hennessy said there are other problems with the department.
Since the shooting of Steinle, Mirkarimi has had his driver's license briefly suspended for failing to properly report a minor accident while driving a department-issued car, and he flunked a marksmanship test.
Before those two incidents, a drug gang leader escaped from jail, and guards were accused of staging and gambling on inmate fights.
In November 2014, Mirkarimi apologized for the bungled search for a San Francisco General Hospital patient whose body was found in a stairwell weeks after she wandered from her room. The sheriff is in charge of the hospital's security, but deputies didn't search the building until nine days after her disappearance. The city paid the patient's family $3 million to settle a lawsuit.
Political consultant Dan Newman and other analysts say the election is Hennessy's to lose because of Mirkarimi's problems.
"He imploded before he started," Newman said. "Then he continued with a string of screw ups."
Friday, October 30, 2015
Grounded: New Mexico driver's licenses fail feds' test, thanks to illegal immigrant policy
Driver's licenses issued by New Mexico are about to become a lot less useful, and residents can blame the state's insistence on issuing the IDs to illegal immigrants.
The federal Department of Homeland Security informed state officials last week that a two-year effort to reconcile tough federal ID requirements with the granting of licenses to illegal immigrants based on dubious documents failed. Beginning on Jan. 10, state driver’s licenses will no longer be accepted at federal facilities, and eventually, state IDs won’t be enough to get bearers on board commercial flights.
"Although DHS recognizes the State of New Mexico's efforts to enhance the security of its driver's licenses and identification cards, New Mexico has not provided adequate justification for continued noncompliance with the REAL ID standards that would warrant granting your request for another extension," read the DHS letter sent to the state Department of Taxation. "As a result, federal agencies may not accept New Mexico driver's licenses and identification cards for official purposes in accordance with the phased enforcement schedule announced on December 20, 2013."
"With this letter, the feds are saying that they are fed up that the Legislature continues to allow the dangerous practice of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants."In addition to New Mexico, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Utah and Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C., issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Washington and New Mexico are the only states that do not require proof of legal presence in the U.S. to get a state license or ID, while the others give restricted licenses to people who can't prove they are in the U.S. legally.
- Demesia Padilla, New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue
But New Mexico is in worse shape than Washington, which offers enhanced driver's licenses and IDs that require proof of U.S. citizenship. Those are valid under the federal law, but the standard IDs issued for years don't pass federal muster. Since 2007, more than 500,000 Washington residents have gotten an enhanced driver's license or enhanced ID card. There are about 5.4 million people with standard licenses, and about 600,000 with regular ID cards.
The REAL ID Act requires proof of legal U.S. residency for holders of government-issued identification cards who want to use them to access certain areas of federal buildings. New Mexico state law allows immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses, a policy current Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has tried to get repealed. But with the policy entrenched, and officials unable to guarantee to the satisfaction of federal authorities that IDs are secure, no New Mexico-issued licenses will be recognized.
"With this letter, the feds are saying that they are fed up that the Legislature continues to allow the dangerous practice of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants," said Demesia Padilla, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue. "An overwhelming majority of New Mexicans have been very clear on this issue, and the Legislature should start listening to them before it begins to affect the daily lives of New Mexicans."
The feds have granted New Mexico two years' worth of extensions to comply with the REAL ID Act, but has denied any further delay. The federal crackdown will extend to military bases and federal facilities such as courts, but the aspect likely to have the widest effect is air travel. Without a new solution in the coming months, New Mexico residents will likely be forced to show passports in order to board even domestic flights.
The REAL ID Act, was passed by Congress in 2005, enacted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver's licenses.”
At the core of DHS's decision is a 2003 policy implemented by then- Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants who were allowed to present the Matricular Consular card issued by Mexican consulates, as an official form of identification.
Richardson had hoped the policy would bring unlicensed drivers out of the shadows and at least have them go through the licensing process to bolster the number of insured drivers in the state.
In March, the state Senate approved a two-tiered bill that would have continued to allow licenses to be issued to illegal immigrants while taking steps to ensure security, but the measure died in the house.
Despite being the first Latina governor in U.S. history, Martinez, a former prosecutor, sees the policy as a catalyst for criminal fraud which occurred almost immediately after the policy went into place.
In 2014, Hai Gan, 57, a legal, permanent resident from China who resides in The Colony, Texas, was sentenced in federal court to 41 months in federal prison and will be deported after he completes his prison sentence for attempting to fraudulently obtain driver's licenses for 51 illegal immigrants.
Senate passes budget and debt deal, sends measure to Obama
In a rare late-night session, the Senate gave final approval to an ambitious budget and debt deal early Friday, sending it to President Barack Obama to sign.
The final vote on passage was 64-35, as Democrats joined forces with Republican defense hawks over the objections of GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio, all of whom voted against the deal. The bill is aimed at averting a debt default, avoiding a partial government shutdown and setting spending priorities for the next two years.
Earlier in Friday's session, the Senate voted 63-35 to end debate on the measure. The vote to approve the bill was taken just after 3 a.m. EDT.
Obama negotiated the accord with Republican and Democratic leaders who were intent on steering Congress away from the brinkmanship and shutdown threats that have haunted lawmakers for years. Former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, felt a particular urgency days before leaving Congress, while lawmakers looked ahead to presidential and congressional elections next year.
Opposition was strong in the Senate, with Paul and Cruz both leaving the campaign trail to criticize the deal as excessive Washington spending.
In an hour-long speech that delayed the start of the final vote, Paul said Congress is "bad with money." He railed against increases in defense dollars supported by Republicans and domestic programs supported by Democrats.
Meanwhile, Cruz said the Republican majorities had given Obama a "diamond-encrusted, glow-in-the-dark Amex card" for government spending.
"It's a pretty nifty card," Cruz said. "You don't have to pay for it, you get to spend it and it's somebody else's problem."
The Democratic National Committee slammed Cruz, Paul and Rubio for their opposition to the deal, with chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying, "There is nothing presidential about failing to pay your bills and jeopardizing our standing in the world economy. It is completely unbelievable that these reckless politicians think they deserve a promotion to the presidency."
The agreement would raise the government debt ceiling until March 2017, removing the threat of an unprecedented national default Nov. 3. At the same time, it would set the budget of the government through the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years and ease spending caps by providing $80 billion more for military and domestic programs, paid for with a hodgepodge of spending cuts and revenue increases touching areas from tax compliance to spectrum auctions.
The deal would also avert a looming shortfall in the Social Security disability trust fund that threatened to slash benefits, and head off an unprecedented increase in Medicare premiums for outpatient care for about 15 million beneficiaries.
The promise of more money for the military ensured support from defense hawks like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, while additional funds for domestic programs pleased Democrats.
Obama and allies like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were big winners in the talks, but GOP leaders cleared away political land mines confronting the party on the eve of 2016 campaigns to win back the White House and maintain its grip on the Senate.
The measure leaves a clean slate for new Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as he begins his leadership of the House.
Obama had repeatedly said he would not negotiate budget concessions in exchange for increasing the debt limit, though he did agree to package the debt and budget provisions.
"I am as frustrated by the refusal of this administration to even engage on this (debt limit) issue," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "However, the president's refusal to be reasonable and do his job when it comes to our debt is no excuse for Congress failing to do its job and prevent a default."
The budget relief would lift caps on the appropriated spending passed by Congress each year by $50 billion in 2016 and $30 billion in 2017, evenly divided between defense and domestic. Another $16 billion or so would come each year in the form of inflated war spending, evenly split between the Defense and State departments.
The Appropriations committees will still have to write legislation to reflect the spending and Congress faces a Dec. 11 deadline to approve such a bill.
The cuts include curbs on Medicare payments for outpatient services provided by certain hospitals and an extension of a 2-percentage-point cut in Medicare payments to doctors through the end of a 10-year budget. There's also a drawdown from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and savings reaped from a Justice Department fund for crime victims that involves assets seized from criminals.
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