Two Mexican-American burn the Mexican Flag
Conservative Blogger
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Ryan chides Trump for comment on judge’s heritage
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| A united GOP front? Paul Ryan says he will vote for Trump |
The controversial remarks focused on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who's hearing a Trump University lawsuit. Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Curiel has "an absolute conflict of interest" because of his Mexican heritage as well as "an inherent conflict of interest" because Trump wants to build the border wall.
Asked Friday morning during a WISN radio interview about those comments, Ryan called them “out of left field.”
"It's reasoning I don't relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that," Ryan said.
The speaker noted he’s “had to speak up” from time to time and said he’ll continue to do so, adding: “I hope it’s not” necessary.
The pushback comes a day after Ryan announced he would be voting for Trump, an announcement his office said amounts to an endorsement. This ended a tense period during which Ryan held back his endorsement amid reservations about the presumptive GOP nominee’s policy stances and past comments.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
The Hillary Clinton campaign, meanwhile, slammed Trump for his remarks on the judge, saying: “The fact that Donald Trump doesn't see Judge Curiel and his family as Americans makes him unfit to be president of this great nation, a nation of immigrants.”
Curiel is a native of Indiana whose parents emigrated from Mexico. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Indiana University and served as a federal prosecutor and a judge in the California state judicial system before being nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2011.
Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied.
The school emerged as an issue in a February Republican presidential debate, after which Trump made his first comments criticizing Curiel.
The judge seemingly raised Trump's ire anew last week when he ordered the release of documents that had been sealed. Trump's campaign and private lawyers handling the lawsuits did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Federal judges have repeatedly rebuffed calls to step aside from cases over race, religion and ethnicity. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman, who is Jewish, turned down a request to withdraw from a case of a Palestinian immigrant accused of lying about her role in a fatal terrorist attack. "Like every one of my colleagues on the bench, I have a history and a heritage, but neither interferes with my ability to administer impartial justice," Borman said.
He later did step aside from the case, after discovering his family had an investment in the Jerusalem supermarket the woman helped bomb in 1969. Financial interests often are involved when judges withdraw.
How do you say 'Fail'? Clinton bungles well-known Spanish-language chant
No, she can't. Speak Spanish, that is.
During a stump speech in California, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton focused on an issue close to the hearts of Latinos, immigration, but then she proceeded to mangle a well-known Spanish-language chant.
“I love this country, and I know we are a nation of immigrants from New York to California,” Clinton said, and the crowd responded by clapping enthusiastically.
Some people took up the chant first used by the United Farm Workers during its 1970s protests, “Sí, se puede!” ("Yes, we can")
Clinton smiled, pointed to the crowd and attempted to join in. But instead of saying, "Yes, we can" in Spanish, she said something closer to "If one could."
“Sí, se pueda!” Clinton chanted, incorrectly conjugating the Spanish verb “poder.”
What makes the mistake worse is that Dolores Huerta, the UFW co-founder who coined the Sí, se puede!” chant with Cesar Chavez, is a staunch Clinton supporter.
This is not the first time that Clinton has taken heat for her use of Spanish.
In December, the former Secretary of State received backlash from Twitter users after her campaign put out a video called “7 Way Hillary Clinton is just like your abuela,” on the same day that Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, announced she is pregnant with what will be Clinton's second grandchild.
The ad was quickly derided by online users as employing stereotypes, basic Spanish vocabulary and a photo of the candidate with singer Marc Anthony to show she is in touch with a younger generation.
Clinton has also been known to pepper her tweets with Spanish words and has used “Basta!” (“Enough”) when speaking about Republican rival Donald Trump.
Despite these very public gaffes, Clinton is still heavily favored among Latinos if she were to go up against Trump in the general election.
A recent Fox News Latino poll found that 62 percent of registered Latino voters would head to the ballot box for Clinton in November, while only 23 percent would support Trump on Election Day.
Vox editor suspended for encouraging riots at Trump rallies
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| How many illegals are in this picture? |
"We welcome a variety of viewpoints, but we do not condone writing that could put others in danger,” the site's founder, Ezra Klein, said in a statement announcing the suspension of Emmett Rensin.
Rensin, deputy editor for the site's first-person section, had taken to Twitter as reports first emerged of the chaotic scenes Thursday night outside the California rally, where protesters confronted supporters of the presumptive GOP nominee as they departed. Supporters were punched, and one woman was seen on film being hit with an egg and other trash.
Rensin tweeted that it's "never a shame to storm the barricades set up around a fascist."
He then posted:
His suggestion was followed by a series of similar statements.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Several bloggers, including Ed Morrissey of the conservative Hot Air, criticized Rensin’s comments, but it was not until Friday afternoon that Klein chimed in. A frequent commentator on MSNBC, Klein left his position as a Washington Post columnist to start Vox in 2014.
In announcing Rensin's suspension, Klein asserted he welcomes debate, but that “direct encouragement of riots crosses a line between expressing a contrary opinion and directly encouraging dangerous, illegal activity.”
Meanwhile, Trump commented on the San Jose chaos during a rally Friday afternoon in Redding, Calif., calling some of the protesters "thugs."
Rensin continued his tweet-storm well into Friday morning, while clarifying and defending his position.
He wrote: “I wonder how many of the people beside themselves about anti-Trump riots have called for armed revolt against Obama in the past 8 years?”
Clinton IT aide Pagliano ordered to produce DOJ immunity agreement
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| Clinton aide Pagliano pleads the Fifth in email scandal |
According to The Hill, the judge’s order postpones Bryan Pagliano’s deposition with the watchdog group Judicial Watch indefinitely. The interview had been scheduled to take place Monday.
Pagliano planned to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answers questions over an open records lawsuit, according to court documents obtained Wednesday by Fox News. His lawyers also asked a federal judge to block Judicial Watch from recording his deposition, stating that a written transcription should be enough.
However, Judge Emmet Sullivan declared that his lawyers need to file a legal memorandum to outline the legality for him to plead the Fifth “including requisite details pertaining to the scope of Mr. Pagliano's reported immunity agreement with the government,” The Hill reported.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, called Sullivan’s order “an important step to getting more answers from Mr. Pagliano about Hillary Clinton's email system.”
Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before helping install the so-called “homebrew” server system in her Chappaqua, N.Y. home, cut an immunity deal last fall with the Justice Department amid the FBI probe. He was recently described to Fox News by an intelligence source as a “devastating witness.”
In the fall, Pagliano told at least three congressional committees in the fall that he will invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying against Clinton. He was asked to testify about the serve by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The Washington Post reported in September 2015 that Pagliano had been subpoenaed by the Benghazi committee Aug. 11 and committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. had ordered that he appear for questioning Sept. 10. Gowdy also demanded that Pagliano provide documents related to all servers or computer systems controlled or owned by Clinton between 2009 and 2013.
The Post reported in August 2015 that Pagliano had worked as an IT director on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and was asked to oversee the installation of Clinton’s server to handle her correspondence while secretary of state. He was paid by a political action committee tied to Clinton until April 2009, when he was hired by the State Department as an IT specialist.
According to the paper, Pagliano left government service in February 2013 and now works for a technology contractor that provides some services for the State Department.
Lawyers for senior Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, during a nearly five-hour deposition last week in Washington, repeatedly objected to questions about Pagliano’s role in setting up the former secretary of state’s private server.
According to a transcript of the deposition with Judicial Watch released on Tuesday, Mills attorney Beth Wilkinson – as well as Obama administration lawyers – objected to the line of questioning about Pagliano, who has emerged as a central figure in the FBI's ongoing criminal probe of Clinton's email practices.
Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing related to her private server.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Afghan national tied to Taliban, attack plot smuggled into US Through Mexico
An Afghan national with ties to the Taliban — and a plot to carry out
a terror attack somewhere in North America — was caught last fall after
being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, an incident sure to further
inflame the debate over national security risks at the border.
The Afghan national’s alleged terror ties were not
initially flagged in a terror database – and as a result, not initially
reported – when the incident first came to light last November,
according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who obtained Homeland
Security documents on the incident. It was only later that U.S.
officials discovered his associations.
Hunter told Fox News on Friday that the database disconnect represents a “monumental failure.”
“We don’t know who’s coming into the U.S. and what
they’re bringing with them,” he told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “It
is as bad as it seems.”
The new details were first reported by The Washington Times.
According to information shared with FoxNews.com by
Hunter’s office, the Afghan in question was picked up and detained by
U.S. Border Patrol agents about 15 miles inside Arizona from the border.
He was arrested along with five Pakistani citizens and two Mexicans
identified as smugglers.
The Afghan claimed he crossed into the U.S. on Nov.
13, 2015 by crawling under a border fence near Nogales, Ariz. But an
initial check in one of the terror databases apparently did not flag
him.
As a result, all six illegal immigrants – from what
are known as “special interest” countries – were cleared by the National
Targeting Center.
According to a letter sent Wednesday from Hunter to
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, all six were initially served
with an “Expedited Removal.” The Afghan national “sought U.S.
immigration benefits, and was processed as having credible fear after he
stated his life was in danger,” Hunter wrote.
However, according to the letter, the individual was
in fact identified in a separate database, the Terrorist Identities
Datamart Environment (TIDE), as having terror ties.
Hunter wrote that the individual was said to be
“involved in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. and/or Canada and
has family ties to members of the Taliban.”
For an unknown reason, the individual was not
initially watch-listed in the separate Terrorist Screening Database,
according to the letter – and so these associations were not initially
noticed.
Officials apparently noticed the error in time, as the individual remains in U.S. custody in Arizona.
But Hunter said in his letter to Johnson that his
understanding is the whereabouts of the other men arrested that day “is
unknown.” Hunter asked DHS for additional details.
Hunter also pushed back Friday on the notion that the
incident could represent a success since the Afghan national was
ultimately apprehended and later flagged.
“You can assume that others have gotten through,” Hunter told Fox News.
The information shared with FoxNews.com showed at
least a dozen illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan have
either made it across the U.S. border or gotten close, dating back to
2014.
The Washington Times reported that the incident last fall involved a Brazilian-based smuggling network.
The Afghan national in question apparently took a
complicated route, essentially around the world and then through Latin
America, to arrive in Arizona. He told officials he left Afghanistan in
2015 and then traveled from Dubai to Brazil. From there, he moved up
through Peru and other South American countries before traveling through
Central America.
In August 2015, he was apprehended in Panama but was
released when “no derogatory information” on him was found. He continued
his journey, crossing into the U.S. in November before being detected,
along with his group, by Border Patrol.
The apprehensions were reported at the time.
However, the local reports,
based on comments from border officials, also said no “derogatory
information” turned up when their names were run through security
databases.
“The American people would have had no clue on this
if we didn’t get these documents from Homeland Security,” Hunter said
Friday.
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