Thursday, January 14, 2016
State Department discovers 'thousands' of previously undisclosed Clinton documents
The Department of State recently discovered “thousands” of previously unreviewed documents that relate to Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi attack, according to a watchdog group that has been suing the department to release public records from Clinton’s tenure.
The State Department disclosed the existence of the additional records in a court filing on Friday and asked the judge for further time to search and review the documents.
The watchdog group Judicial Watch has been suing the State Department for years to turn over public records related to Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation, the employment arrangements of Clinton’s top aides, and her response to the Benghazi attack.
According to the State Department, the newly found records are likely to include information relevant to Judicial Watch’s requests. Officials said they would need until at least Feb. 1 to review the documents.
“After State filed its motion for summary judgment in this case [on November 11, 2015], State located additional sources of documents that originated within the Office of the Secretary that are reasonably likely to contain records responsive to Plaintiff’s request,” said the State Department’s attorneys in a court filing.
A judge ordered the State Department to turn over public records after Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the department in September 2013. The case was reopened last year after it was reported that Clinton’s emails, which were sent over a personal email server, had not been searched.
Al Jazeera America to shut down in April
Al Jazeera English bans terms 'terrorist,' 'Islamist' |
The network said in a statement that "Al Jazeera America will cease operation by April 30, 2016," explaining that "while Al Jazeera America built a loyal audience across the U.S. and increasingly was recognized as an important new voice in television news, the economic landscape of the media environment has driven its strategic decision to wind down its operations and conclude its service."
Ray Suarez, a Washington, D.C.-based host at the channel, said in an email to Fox News Latino: “We put a good product on the air, with strong content from around the world that you can't see anywhere else. But ... being good isn't enough on its own in 2016.”
Al Anstey, Al Jazeera America’s chief executive, reportedly wrote in a memo to staffers. “I know the closure of AJAM will be a massive disappointment for everyone here who has worked tirelessly for our long-term future. The decision that has been made is in no way because AJAM has done anything but a great job.”
Al Jazeera's prime-time ratings recently ranged from 20,000 to 30,000 viewers, according to Nielsen data. Upon taking over the network in May 2015, Anstey downplayed the network's ratings woes, saying it would “take time to build viewership.”
Maine lawmakers to debate impeaching governor
Maine lawmakers are expected to debate an impeachment order against Gov. Paul LePage Thursday over allegations of abuse of power.
The proposal, submitted by Democratic Rep. Ben Chipman, hopes to punish the Republican governor for allegedly using his influence to pressure a school operator into rescinding a job offer from Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves. Eves responded to the action by filing a civil lawsuit in federal court.
"It's a matter of principle," said Chipman, of Portland. "It's about holding the governor accountable and standing up to his behavior."
LePage critics are also seeking to look into allegations that he forced out the president of the Maine Community College System, refused to allow administration officials to testify in front of committees and involved himself in the internal workings of the unemployment compensation board.
LePage was initially elected as Maine’s governor in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. The 67-year-old governor has defended his actions, saying he has done nothing wrong and claiming the attacks against him are political and a tantamount to a “witch hunt.”
A majority vote in the Democratic-controlled Maine House would be all LePage’s critics need to kick off an investigation. However, some Democrats fear the decision to go ahead with a vote on the proposed order will prove futile and could embolden the already outspoken governor.
The state attorney general, Democrat Janet Mills, has already declined to investigate LePage's conduct. She said there was no evidence he committed a crime when he pressured Good Will-Hinckley, an organization that serves at-risk young people, to rescind the job offer to Eves.
LePage is known for a blunt style and off-the-cuff remarks that get him into trouble.
He was criticized last week after saying out-of-state drug dealers with names like "D-Money, Smoothie and Shifty" sell heroin in Maine and "half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave." He later apologized for the comment, calling it a slip of the tongue.
Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos, an impeachment supporter and political independent, said the governor's white-girl comment was just the latest in a long line of abuses.
"The governor's remarks unmask what many of us already knew about his racist and xenophobic tendencies, his class war against poor people of all colors and his vindictiveness toward immigrants based on color and religion," Evangelos said.
LePage has also said President Barack Obama could “go to hell” and likened the IRS to the Gestapo. LePage also once told the Portland NAACP to "kiss my butt." He said a political opponent gives it to the people "without providing Vaseline."
Republican Rep. Kenneth Fredette, of Newport, defended LePage’s comments, telling The Boston Globe the governor may have mistakenly chosen his words because his first language is French.
An impeachment order would be unprecedented. It also wouldn't likely survive long as it would eventually go to the Republican-controlled Senate.
The Boston Globe reported that an investigative panel would have until April 1 to report any findings and recommend an impeachment. The trial would move to the Senate where a two-thirds majority vote is required to remove LePage from office.
Trump, conservative pundits hit back at Haley for State of the Union response
While Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., was praised in many quarters for her response to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday, she also received strong criticism from some conservatives for her pointed remarks aimed at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
In her response, while criticizing President Obama on a number of issues, Haley also made a series of apparent references to Trump, including calling on Americans to ignore “the angriest voices” on the subject of immigration.
"During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation," Haley said
“Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference,” she said.
On NBC’s Today Show Wednesday, Haley acknowledged that she was in fact referring to Trump among others.
"Yes, Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk," she said.
Haley later appeared on Fox News’ “On The Record” with Greta Van Susteren and said while she considers Trump “a friend,” she does disagree with him.
“I disagree with the fact that he wants to start using religion as a way to divide people,” she said, referring to Trump calling for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
“I just want him to understand that this country is made up of immigrants, we want to make sure they’re properly vetted and they come here legally,” Haley said.
Trump earlier had fired back on Fox & Friends Wednesday, calling Haley “very weak on illegal immigration.”
"She's very weak on illegal immigration…and she certainly has no trouble asking me for campaign contributions because over the years she’s asked me for a hell of a lot of money in campaign contributions," he said.
When asked if he would pick her as a running mate, Trump said, “I wouldn’t say she is off to a good start.”
While many pundits in the media and lawmakers in Washington D.C. praised Haley's speech, with some saying it has marked her as a potential candidate for vice president, other conservative voices weren’t so happy with Haley taking aim at a Republican presidential candidate.
Talk radio host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham tweeted that Haley missed a golden opportunity to stand with working Americans on the subject of immigration.
She also blasted her for being the voice of the Republican establishment.
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was also not impressed. While he said he was an admirer of Haley, he hailed the speech as proof that the Republican establishment is trying to drive conservatives out of the party and define who is qualified to be a Republican.
“For one thing, it's almost absolute proof of what I have been saying for last couple years now, that the Republican Party's trying to drive conservatives out of the party," Limbaugh said on his show Wednesday.
"But I think it's more than that. It's certainly that, but her speech last night sort of expanded the theme of who is and who isn't qualified to be a Republican, and the Republican Party is still anti-conservative,” Limbaugh said.
Conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter criticized Haley using a similar tone, accusing her of wanting to shut up voters.
Coulter even went so far as to tweet "Trump should deport Nikki Haley."
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
The press, feeling the Bern, suddenly weighs whether Sanders could derail Hillary
One of the goals of President Obama’s State of the
Union last night was to emphasize liberal issues, such as gun control,
that could ease Hillary Clinton’s path to the White House.
But first she’s got to win the Democratic nomination, and for the first time in this contest, the mainstream media are considering the possibility that this isn’t a slam dunk.
The media’s conventional wisdom has long been that Hillary might stumble in an early state or two, but she was still a virtual lock to be the nominee. But suddenly the punditry, fueled by recent polls, is starting to shift, with news organizations now at least considering the possibility that this is a real race.
The Bernie phenomenon, overshadowed by the Trump phenomenon, hasn’t really gotten its full due in the media. And Bernie agrees, having recently ripped the corporate media for giving his campaign a tiny fraction of the attention that The Donald gets.
He has a point. Although Sanders has been on the cover of Time, the press has largely underplayed the fact that he’s drawing huge crowds, raised $73 million last year and is exciting the liberal grass roots. And the reason is simple: Virtually no one in the punditry universe believes that Sanders can win the nomination.
But now come a spate of eye-catching polls. A new Monmouth survey has Sanders leading Clinton by 14 points in New Hampshire, on the heels of a Fox poll giving him a 13-point lead.
Well, the prognosticators have long expected that Sanders, from neighboring Vermont, would probably take New Hampshire. But now comes a Quinnipiac poll showing Sanders with a 5-point edge in Iowa.
Now it’s true that Clinton has a much bigger advantage as the contest moves to bigger states, where Sanders would not get many minority votes and her union backing would definitely help. But if the heavily favored Hillary Clinton goes 0 for 2 in the first two contests, would that create a media explosion and seriously wound her candidacy?
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza says that “would be a total nightmare for Clinton. Period. It’s also a lot more likely to go from fantasy to reality than most people — including most establishment Democrats — understand.”
That’s why Hillary has stopped treated Bernie as a nuisance and has sharpened her attacks. In an Iowa appearance, she said there is a “big difference on guns” between her and Sanders: “If you say stand up to special interests, then stand up to the gun lobby.”
And it’s hard to believe that Clinton’s proposal yesterday to slap a 4 percent income tax surcharge on those earning more than $5 million a year wasn’t influenced by Sanders’ soak-the-rich campaign.
Sanders, who has avoided attacking Clinton personally, has been pushing back, accusing her of running a “panicky” campaign.
Most journalists concluded that Sanders wasn’t serious after the first Democratic debate, when he took a key issue off the table by saying he was “sick” of hearing about her damn emails. The media have pretty much treated him like Larry David ever since.
Clinton is still the overwhelming favorite. But for the first time in many months, the press is questioning whether she might be derailed—and someone else drawn into the race. I’m sure it was just a coincidence that Joe Biden just said that Bernie, not Hillary, has long been fighting against income inequality.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
But first she’s got to win the Democratic nomination, and for the first time in this contest, the mainstream media are considering the possibility that this isn’t a slam dunk.
The media’s conventional wisdom has long been that Hillary might stumble in an early state or two, but she was still a virtual lock to be the nominee. But suddenly the punditry, fueled by recent polls, is starting to shift, with news organizations now at least considering the possibility that this is a real race.
The Bernie phenomenon, overshadowed by the Trump phenomenon, hasn’t really gotten its full due in the media. And Bernie agrees, having recently ripped the corporate media for giving his campaign a tiny fraction of the attention that The Donald gets.
He has a point. Although Sanders has been on the cover of Time, the press has largely underplayed the fact that he’s drawing huge crowds, raised $73 million last year and is exciting the liberal grass roots. And the reason is simple: Virtually no one in the punditry universe believes that Sanders can win the nomination.
But now come a spate of eye-catching polls. A new Monmouth survey has Sanders leading Clinton by 14 points in New Hampshire, on the heels of a Fox poll giving him a 13-point lead.
Well, the prognosticators have long expected that Sanders, from neighboring Vermont, would probably take New Hampshire. But now comes a Quinnipiac poll showing Sanders with a 5-point edge in Iowa.
Now it’s true that Clinton has a much bigger advantage as the contest moves to bigger states, where Sanders would not get many minority votes and her union backing would definitely help. But if the heavily favored Hillary Clinton goes 0 for 2 in the first two contests, would that create a media explosion and seriously wound her candidacy?
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza says that “would be a total nightmare for Clinton. Period. It’s also a lot more likely to go from fantasy to reality than most people — including most establishment Democrats — understand.”
That’s why Hillary has stopped treated Bernie as a nuisance and has sharpened her attacks. In an Iowa appearance, she said there is a “big difference on guns” between her and Sanders: “If you say stand up to special interests, then stand up to the gun lobby.”
And it’s hard to believe that Clinton’s proposal yesterday to slap a 4 percent income tax surcharge on those earning more than $5 million a year wasn’t influenced by Sanders’ soak-the-rich campaign.
Sanders, who has avoided attacking Clinton personally, has been pushing back, accusing her of running a “panicky” campaign.
Most journalists concluded that Sanders wasn’t serious after the first Democratic debate, when he took a key issue off the table by saying he was “sick” of hearing about her damn emails. The media have pretty much treated him like Larry David ever since.
Clinton is still the overwhelming favorite. But for the first time in many months, the press is questioning whether she might be derailed—and someone else drawn into the race. I’m sure it was just a coincidence that Joe Biden just said that Bernie, not Hillary, has long been fighting against income inequality.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
In GOP response, Haley pans Obama presidency, makes case for a 'new direction'
South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday tried giving President Obama a swift goodbye after his final State of the Union address, saying he had failed to deliver on promises and that America will soon "have the chance to turn in a new direction."
“That’s what I want to talk about tonight,” said Haley, a rising GOP star picked to deliver the party’s official response to the presidential address. “If we held the White House, taxes would be lower for working families. And we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt.”
Haley -- increasingly mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate -- pointed out that she is the daughter of Indian immigrants and suggested that a Republican administration would welcome new families and restore the American Dream.
“My story is really not much different from millions of other Americans',” she said from the statehouse in Columbia. “Immigrants have been coming to our shores for generations to live the dream that is America. … No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country."
She also urged Americans to resist “the siren call of the angriest voices,” in the aftermath of recent terror attacks abroad and in the United States connected to Islamic radicals.
Haley, 43, argued that Obama appears “either unwilling or unable” to address the worst domestic terror threat since 9/11.
She also said the U.S. should welcome "properly vetted" legal immigrants but made clear that illegal immigration can no longer continue.
Unmoved by Obama’s promise Tuesday night to continue to try to fix the country’s immigration problems and his plea to embrace the “pace of change,” Haley argued Americans are “frustrated” by the slow process and the increased size of government during his nearly eight years as president.
Haley, who convincingly won a second term in 2014, has become increasingly popular in political circles for her leadership in the aftermath of the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, in which a white gunman killed nine black people inside an historic African-American church.
She called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the statehouse grounds, and in the immediate aftermath Haley helped maintain calm.
“We didn’t have violence, we had vigils. We didn’t have riots, we had hugs,” Haley said Tuesday. “We didn’t turn against each other’s race or religion. … We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us. And we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him.”
Haley, the state's first female governor, also said too many Americans during the Obama administration are still feeling the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels, and she railed against ObamaCare, which she argued has made health insurance less affordable and doctors less available.
Still, Haley was unwilling to heap all of the blame on Obama and fellow Democrats.
“There is more than enough blame to go around,” she said. “We as Republicans need … to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken. And then we need to fix it. … We have big decisions to make. Our country is being tested.”
Republican South Dakota Sen. John Thune said Obama in his address "clearly wanted to credit for the good things" over the past seven years.
"But I don't think it's going to make much of an impact on people or what's going on on Capitol Hill," he said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
Tit for Tat ? ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base in Rochester on the an...
-
NEW YORK (AP) — As New York City faced one of its darkest days with the death toll from the coronavirus surging past 4,000 — more th...