Conservative Blogger
Saturday, June 18, 2016
GOP delegates conjuring last-ditch effort to force contested convention
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| Last stand? GOP delegates hatching plan to block Trump |
According to the Associated Press, more congressional Republicans are not endorsing Trump and are planning to skip the convention in Cleveland next month altogether. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., one of Trump’s top House backers, says his support among lawmakers “has stalled.”
"We're acting to save the Republican Party from imminent disaster," said Steve Lonegan, who chaired Sen. Ted Cruz's New Jersey campaign and is helping organize an effort to let delegates chosen to back one candidate vote instead for another.
Lonegan says Cruz is not involved in the effort.
The Washington Post reported that Republicans believe Trump is letting the presidential race get away from him already with his attacks on a federal judge, his renewed calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and his support for national gun law reform.
“This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the effort, told the Post. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”
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“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience,” Ryan says in his interview with the news program Sunday, per The Post.
Others not supporting him or attending the convention include House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., who for the first time in his 30-year congressional career is not backing the party nominee.
Unruh's group, which Lonegan is helping, is using social media and emails and held a conference call Thursday night to organize efforts to find support.
To prevail, Unruh needs a majority of the 112 members of the convention rules committee, which has two delegates from each state and territory. Then, a majority of the full convention's 2,472 delegates would have to approve.
There's a Plan B. If Unruh can win over one-fourth support from the rules committee — just 29 delegates — the full convention must vote on her proposal. So far she's got around 10 supporters though some prefer delaying the rule's impact until the 2020 convention, she said.
Party officials looking to smooth Trump's convention path are already counting noses.
Randy Evans, Georgia's RNC committeeman, says his informal tally suggests it will be a "pretty tall order" to prevent the full convention from voting on unbinding delegates. But he said he expects Trump forces to win a convention floor showdown "pretty comfortably."
"They can make everything look tumultuous," Cindy Costa, South Carolina's RNC committeewoman, said of those attempting to let delegates vote freely. But it would be "a big mistake" and would lose, she said.
Trump has already dismissed any plots that seek to overtake his impending nomination in July in a statement released Friday.
“I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries,” he said. “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying.
“People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot — but there is no mechanism for it to happen.”
Previous attempts to boot Trump from the nomination or change the rules to stop him haven’t panned out, but the new Hail Mary approach vows to get a contested convention.
Many say, like him or not, Trump won and efforts to dump him would be crushed and would devastate the GOP. According to The Associated Press, Trump has 1,542 delegates, including 1,447 required by party rules to back his nomination, well above the 1,237 needed for victory.
One catch: Delegates "bound" to one candidate can vote freely in convention rules fights. Delegates could sour on Trump and approve procedures opening the door to an alternative.
"It's a fantasy, it won't happen," said Morton Blackwell, a Republican National Committee member from Virginia who initially backed Cruz.
"We have a responsibility to respect our democracy, and that means we accept the outcome of the vote," said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who supported the presidential bid of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Rights groups silent as Clinton Foundation takes millions from countries that imprison gays
The Clinton Foundation has accepted millions from Middle Eastern and other foreign governments that criminalize homosexuality – but prominent gay rights groups in America have stayed silent on the apparent disconnect between Hillary Clinton’s rhetoric and the donations.
"Unquestionably, they're not standing up for their principles," said Human Rights Foundation President Thor Halvorssen.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee frequently talks about her support for the LGBT community, while ripping what she describes as discriminatory policies in the U.S.
"It's outrageous that, in 2015, you can still be fired for being gay," she told the Human Rights Campaign in an October 2015 speech. "You can still lose your home for being gay. You can even be denied a wedding cake for being gay."
But published reports and figures provided by the Clinton Foundation on its website show the group has accepted millions from countries that prosecute and imprison gay people – and worse. The following is an overview of those contributions, as well as policies from donor nations as detailed by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).
- Algeria: ($250,000-$500,000) Algerian law states: "Anyone guilty of a homosexual act is punishable with imprisonment.”
- Brunei: ($1 million-$5 million) Brunei's penal code states: "Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years."
- Jamaica: ($50,000-$100,000) Gay men caught having sex face up to 10 years in prison.
- Kuwait: ($5 million-$10 million) Kuwaiti law states: "Consensual intercourse between men of full age (from the age of 21) shall be punishable with a term of imprisonment of up to seven years."
- Oman: ($1 million-$5 million) Law states: "Anyone who commits erotic acts with a person of the same sex shall be sentenced to imprisonment from six months to three years."
- Qatar: ($1 million-$5 million) Sentences for acts of homosexuality range from one to seven years in prison.
- Saudi Arabia: ($10 million-$25 million) Islamic law in Saudi Arabia enforces penalties for homosexual sex, ranging from public flogging to death. For a non-Muslim who commits sodomy with a Muslim, the penalty is death by stoning.
- United Arab Emirates: ($1 million-$5 million) Emirati law states: "All sexual acts outside of heterosexual marriage are banned in the United Arab Emirates."
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But the outrage elsewhere is muted.
Fox News contacted more than a half-dozen prominent gay rights organizations including The Human Rights Campaign; GLAAD; the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; the Los Angeles LGBT Center; and the Gill Foundation. None would comment on what critics consider Clinton's hypocrisy, promising to protect gay rights while enriching her foundation by promoting ties with repressive governments that violate those rights.
Halvorssen said these governments are “essentially buying their way into the good graces of someone who could be the next president” and underscored the disconnect with Clinton’s message on the campaign trail.
"The Clintons constantly talk about how they are friends and allies of the gay community, yet here they are receiving tens of millions of dollars from governments that actually execute people for being gay," he said.
Halvorssen said Clinton should return the money.
Foundation representatives did not return calls or emails asking if the organization had any future plans to decline contributions from regimes that repress gay rights.
"It doesn’t make any sense to me and I think people are starting to realize it’s internally contradictory," Vadum said. "The hypocrisy lies in the fact that Hillary Clinton's foundation takes money from countries where gay sexual acts can be punished by death or by flogging or by other nasty punishments. And so it doesn't make a lot of sense to get upset about comparatively trivial problems here in America that gays face compared to death and torture and dismemberment as they experience every day in countries where Islamic and Sharia law prevail."
Case in point, recall the backlash Clinton received for appreciating Nancy Reagan’s “low-key advocacy” on HIV/AIDS, saying “it penetrated the public conscience, and people began to say, ‘Hey, we have to do something about this.’”
Clinton faced a swift and fierce backlash from gay rights groups, including the nation's largest, the Human Rights Campaign, which considered pulling its endorsement.
Clinton offered an apology within hours.
Alabama county defies order to lower flags half-staff for Orlando attack victims
Officials in an Alabama County refuse to lower flags to half-staff to show solidarity with other states as the nation grieves over the Orlando mass shooting.
Baldwin County Commissioner Tucker Dorsey told reporters Thursday that he’s following flag code by not lowering the flag, according to Alabama Today.
“I am of the opinion, by reading the flag code of the United States, that while my heart certainly goes out to the victims and their families…it doesn’t meet the test of the reason for the flag to be lowered to half-staff,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey defied a federal order from President Barack Obama and a corollary from Gov. Robert Bentley that all state and federal flags were to be lowered until noon Thursday.
He contends that the discretion over flag-lowering lies with him and decided against it.
Alabama Today noted that Dorsey also refused to lower the flags after the November Paris terror attacks and the December San Bernardino terror attack.
“Lowering the flags to half-staff after (a) mass shooting or terrorist event is not a valid circumstance or memorial as specified in the U.S. flag code,” Dorsey explained on his Facebook page Monday. “I realize that the President and Governor may make the order, but I believe and interpret their order inconsistent with the adopted flag code.”
Dorsey also compared lowering the flags half-staff to the state “lowering its head down,” according to Alabama Today. He wanted Americans to fight back against “the forces of evil” instead.
Florida prosecutor suspended for Facebook post following Orlando shooting
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| Who's to blame for the Orlando terror attack? |
Assistant State
Attorney Kenneth Lewis
The Florida State Attorney’s Office announced Friday that an assistant state attorney was suspended for violating the office’s social media policy.
Angela Starke, the public information officer for the State Attorney’s Office, Ninth Judicial Circuit, said Assistant State Attorney Kenneth Lewis was disciplined for a Facebook message following the Orlando massacre that left 49 dead and dozens wounded Sunday.
According to WESH-TV, Lewis wrote a scathing Facebook post decrying Orlando right after the shooting.
"Downtown Orlando has no bottom. The entire city should be leveled. It is void of a single redeeming quality. It is a melting pot of 3rd world miscreants and ghetto thugs. It is void of culture. If you live down there you do it at your own risk and at your own peril.
"If you go down there after dark there is seriously something wrong with you. Disney does everything in its power to shield visitors of Disney from its northern blight. That doesn't change reality. Disney may be the happiest place on earth but Orlando is a national embarrassment. If this is an act of domestic terrorist it is so important that we don't publish the religion, name, or motive of the terrorist as not to offend anyone."
Officials with the State Attorney’s Office said that Lewis violated the SAO9 social media policy and failure to comply with the rule would result in discipline and possible termination.
The station noted that Lewis had previously been reprimanded for making a “crack hoes” comment on Facebook in 2014.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Trump camp hits one year as discussion turns to guns
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| Trump walking a fine line by hinting at gun policy change? |
One year ago today, Donald Trump descended from the glass escalator in Trump Tower to announce his presidential launch. At the time, Jeb Bush and his much rumored big-money super PAC was going to clobber all other Republican hopefuls with maybe a challenge from young Sen. Marco Rubio or popular Gov. Scott Walker.
Ha!
On Day 365 of Trump’s bid, another new poll (taken before the deadly shootings in Orlando) puts Hillary Clinton on top of Trump by 6 points. My, this is a far, far cry from the pre-convention general election scenario Republicans envisioned a year ago.
It is especially true for party conservatives, as their now presumptive nominee hints at a new stance on a core issue for Republican voters: gun rights.
On Wednesday, Trump said that he’d like to discuss with the National Rifle Association, which has already endorsed him, the possibility of preventing gun sales to those on the government’s terror watch list. This coincides with legislation proposed by Senate Democrats that would put such a measure in place, a measure which the NRA has already opposed on the grounds that it gives the government too much power over people who haven’t even been charged with a crime.
Some Senate Republicans, however, seem more open to the possibility of restricting gun sales to those suspected of terrorist ties, but the implementation of the Republican-led ban is much different than what Democrats have proposed.
Although they agree those on the terror watch list should not be sold weapons, Republicans believe that in order to justify not selling the firearm the government must provide evidence for why the sale could not go through within 72 hours.
In the past, Trump has shown openness to banning assault weapons and imposing a waiting period on gun sales. But similar to his switch on abortion, another crucial GOP issue, Trump has fully embraced the Second Amendment right since entering the presidential race.
Trump said at his rally in Atlanta on Wednesday, “By the way, I’m going to save your Second Amendment,” after arguing that if someone else in the Orlando nightclub had a firearm other than the shooter the devastation wouldn’t have been as severe.
Where Trump ultimately comes down on the issue remains to be seen, as his only mention so far was in a single tweet. If he supports a measure on a restriction akin to that proposed by the Democrats and strongly opposed by the NRA however, it would mean a big break with his core constituents and the party as a whole.
And for a man who relies heavily on polling to make his decisions, Trump will find no help here. The country has been split for years: a Gallup survey of recent polling on gun issues shows that there is always a slight uptick in favor of restrictions immediately after a mass shooting followed by a dip as time goes on.
Republicans will have to wait and see how Trump decides to proceed, but it’s a sure bet that one year ago today the party never thought they’d face a possible challenge on a key issue from their own party’s candidate. Or that the candidate in question would be the man descending from the glass escalator.
Ryan, top Republicans urge caution on post-Orlando gun control measures
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| Donald Trump's gun control politics spark controversy |
Calls for action have increased in the wake of the terror massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 50 people, including the gunman, dead on Sunday. The gunman, Omar Mateen, had been on a watch list for 10 months before being removed.
“We want to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. Everybody wants that," Ryan told reporters Thursday. "But as we look at how to proceed, we also want to make sure that we're not infringing upon people's legitimate constitutional rights. That's important.”
Ryan's comments come a day after Trump indicated potential support for new gun laws in this area.
“I will be meeting with the N.R.A., who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee tweeted Wednesday.
Whether Trump would support an outright ban or just a delay for gun sales for those on watch lists is not clear.
That is the sticking point right now in the Senate.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and other Democrats are pushing a measure to ban those on no-fly lists from purchasing weapons.
But Republicans worry about such a measure infringing on gun rights for someone wrongly included on such a list.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has a dueling measure to delay a gun sale for 72 hours, but require prosecutors to go to court to show probable cause if they want to block the sale permanently.
Cornyn’s bill has been backed by the NRA.
Meanwhile, Republican Sens. Charles Grassley, of Iowa, and Ted Cruz, of Texas, have a measure that would notify law enforcement if anyone investigated for terrorism in the last five years tries to buy a gun -- in addition to making other changes.
Democrats drew more attention to their version of the legislation Wednesday night as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., held the floor along with colleagues in a nearly 15-hour filibuster that lasted into the early hours Thursday.
"We can't just wait, we have to make something happen," said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., at an emotional news conference where Democrats joined family members of people killed in the nation's recent mass shootings. "These are people bound by brutality, and their numbers are growing."
But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted Murphy's filibuster as a "campaign talk-a-thon" that did nothing but delay potential votes.
Cruz also slammed Democrats, saying on the Senate floor the Democrat effort was nothing more than a political distraction that avoided the real issues.
“I find it ridiculous that in response to an ISIS terror attack, the Democrats go on high dudgeon that we've got to restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” Cruz said. “This is not a gun control issue, this is a terrorism issue.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Cornyn's bill a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and said it would allow "every terrorist to get a gun." Clinton's spokesman, Brian Fallon, called Cornyn's bill a "smokescreen."
Cornyn responded angrily.
"That's an incredibly ignorant thing for her to say," Cornyn said. "That anybody can be denied their constitutional rights without due process of law and without the government coming forward and establishing probable cause, that's simply un-American."
A possible bipartisan compromise was proposed by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Toomey said Wednesday his bill would prevent potential terrorists from getting a gun, while providing an extra layer of due process that the Democratic bill lacks.
“I have drafted legislation that takes the best features from both of the previous proposals, effectively preventing terrorists from being able to purchase guns, while also safeguarding the rights of innocent Americans who are mistakenly put on the list,” Toomey said.
“The amendment gives the Justice Department an important additional tool to prevent the sale of guns to suspected terrorists by licensed firearms dealers while ensuring protection of the department’s operational and investigative sensitivities," a DOJ official said in a statement.
The DOJ’s stance is a departure from past warnings from FBI Director James Comey, who reportedly has said a ban could alert terrorists they are being investigated.
Ryan cited those remarks when talking to reporters.
“As the FBI director just told us the other day, and I think he said this publicly, if we do this wrong, like the president is proposing, we can actually blow our ongoing terrorist investigations. So, we want to get this right, so that we don't undermine terrorist investigations,” Ryan said.
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