Photo Credit: Ed Uthman / Creative CommonsAn initiative to break California into six separate states has proven to be more than just fodder for late night talk show jokes, after receiving enough signatures to be placed on the November 2016 ballot, the campaign announced Monday.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper is the initiative’s only backer thus far, having contributed $4.9 million of his own money to propel the plan forward. But that funding has apparently gained results. Campaign spokesperson Roger Salazar said Monday that they had accumulated more than the 808,000 signatures necessary to gain placement on the ballot, Reuters reports, and it will be filed Tuesday.
“It’s important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians,” Salazar told Reuters. “The idea … is to create six states with responsive local governments – states that are more representative and accountable to their constituents.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:17:482016-04-11 11:07:15California May Vote on ‘Six States’ Plan in 2016
Photo Credit: APPastors on Tuesday called on North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory to defend that state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the face of lawsuits from same-sex couples in the state and around the country.
When McCrory ran for governor in 2012, he supported the state amendment that defined marriage as between a man and woman. But the socially moderate Republican governor has said little on recent lawsuits challenging the ban.
On the steps of the old Capitol building, about 30 people from the North Carolina Pastors Network rallied. The group referred to rulings that have overturned gay marriage bans across the country as judicial tyranny.
The group is also sending McCrory a petition asking him to use his executive powers to defend the amendment that was approved by 61 percent of voters in 2012.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:16:352016-04-11 11:07:16North Carolina Pastors Rally for Gay Marriage Ban
Photo Credit: Reuters Representative Paul Ryan (R., Wis.,) has given up on passing legislation to overhaul the current immigration system because the border crisis has poisoned the political atmosphere for such an effort, at least for this year.
“It has poisoned it now, that’s for sure,” Ryan told National Review Online, saying he didn’t know if the legislative debate would be feasible next year. “For this session, I believe that’s right.”
Ryan also summarized his view of how to resolve the border crisis. “The ultimate goal ought to be to secure the border, get the resources at the border that you need (and that’s where I think there’s a case for a supplemental; they’re burning through funds). But you’ve got to change the human trafficking law so that we’re not resettling people within the interior of the country, because all that does is create the incentive for more to come,” he said, during an interview after his speech at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies.
It’s not clear if the House will pass a supplemental appropriations bill without border security provisions included in the legislation. “The question is, what all do we put in this, or do we pass a couple measures? And that’s an ongoing debate,” Ryan said.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:15:192016-04-11 11:07:16Paul Ryan: Immigration Bills Dead, At Least for This Year
Photo Credit: APSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ripped into Senate Democrats during a hearing Tuesday for considering a bill that would combat state regulation of abortion services.
The sweeping legislation, called the Women’s Health Protection Act, would prohibit states from passing laws that limit access to legal abortion services if they are “more burdensome than those restrictions imposed on medically comparable procedures.”
Cruz called the proposal “extreme legislation.”
“It is legislation designed to force a radical view from Democrats in the Senate that abortion should be universally available, common, without limit and paid for by the taxpayer,” Cruz said. “And it is also a very real manifestation of a war on women, given the enormous health consequences that unlimited abortion has had damaging the health and sometimes even the lives of women.”
The bill, introduced last November, would provide legal grounds for challenging existing state laws that regulate abortion services. More than 200 laws that restrict access to an abortion went into effect in states across the country from 2011 to 2013, according to the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, which tracks state abortion-related regulations.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2014-07-16 03:14:332016-04-11 11:07:16Cruz Watch: Senator Calls Democratic Bill a ‘Manifestation of a War on Women’
When veterans of the Vietnam War returned to the United States, they did not receive the same type of “welcome home” as our veterans who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead of being greeted with open arms, veterans of Vietnam were often met with open hostility instead, sometimes being spat on or accused of being “baby killers and “war criminals.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:13:372016-04-11 11:07:16WATCH: America Honors Vietnam Vets By Giving Them The Long Awaited Welcome Home They’ve Always Deserved
Photo Credit: THAD ALLTON / APDemocratic challenger Paul Davis sought Tuesday to give his campaign for Kansas governor a bipartisan boost by announcing endorsements from more than 100 moderate Republicans who’ve split with conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback over education and tax policy.
The disaffected Republicans include outgoing Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, three former Kansas Senate presidents and three former Kansas House speakers. More than half are former legislators, and the list includes former U.S. Rep. Jan Meyers, who represented the Kansas City-area 3rd District from 1985 to 1997.
They announced that they formed Republicans for Kansas Values because of their concerns about the aggressive personal income tax cuts enacted at Brownback’s urging.
They called the reductions a reckless fiscal experiment and suggested Brownback’s administration has been hostile to public education.
Davis’ campaign staged a news conference at a Topeka hotel with 40 of the disaffected Republicans so that the bipartisan tone would draw a sharp contrast with rallies Brownback’s re-election campaign had on Monday in Olathe and Wichita.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:12:322016-04-11 11:07:16Paul Davis Touts Support from Republicans in Bid for Kansas Governor
Photo Credit: AFPLess than 3 percent of the U.S. population identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday in the first large-scale government survey measuring Americans’ sexual orientation.
The National Health Interview Survey, which is the government’s premier tool for annually assessing Americans’ health and behaviors, found that 1.6 percent of adults self-identify as gay or lesbian, and 0.7 percent consider themselves bisexual.
The overwhelming majority of adults, 96.6 percent, labeled themselves as straight in the 2013 survey. An additional 1.1 percent declined to answer, responded “I don’t know the answer” or said they were “something else.”
The figures offered a slightly smaller assessment of the size of the gay, lesbian and bisexual population than other surveys, which have pegged the overall proportion at closer to 3.5 or 4 percent. In particular, the estimate for bisexuals was lower than in some other surveys.
The inclusion of the sexual-orientation question in an influential survey used to guide government funding and research decisions was viewed as a major victory for the gay community, which has struggled with a dearth of data about its special health needs.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:11:062016-04-11 11:07:17Health Survey Gives Government its First Large-Scale Data On Gay, Bisexual Population
Photo Credit: REUTERS / Ibraheem Abu MustafaIsrael’s leader says the country will exert “great force” against Gaza’s Hamas rulers after the Islamic militants rejected a truce agreement.
Israel halted its fire for six hours Tuesday after accepting an Egyptian truce proposal. But with Hamas continuing to launch rockets into Israel, it resumed strikes in the afternoon.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-16 03:10:132016-04-11 11:07:17Netanyahu Says Israel Will Hit Hamas Hard
Photo Credit: Steve Pope / GettyIowa Governor: I Do Not Want To House Immigrant Children In My State
By CBSDC/AP.
Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that he does not want Iowa to host any of the thousands of children from Central America who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone.
During a news conference, Branstad said he was not aware of any of the children currently living in Iowa and that state has not been contacted by the federal government about housing any immigrant children. He said the government’s focus should be on securing the borders.
“The first thing we need to do is secure the border. I do have empathy for these kids,” Branstad said. “But I also don’t want to send the signal that (you) send your kids to America illegally. That’s not the right message.”
Nebraska gov, Illinois senator say White House sending illegal immigrant children to their states without notice
By Fox News.
Elected officials in two states far from the U.S.-Mexico border have claimed that the Obama administration has resettled hundreds of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children without adequate notice and has refused to detail the exact locations where the children are being kept.
Fox News has learned that 748 unaccompanied minors have been transferred from areas near the border to the Chicago area. Of the original group of 748 kids, 319 have been placed with family members or sponsors while they await an immigration hearing. The other 429 have been placed in facilities run by the Heartland Alliance, a nonprofit organization that receives grants from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told Fox News Friday that he did not know the exact locations of the facilities where the children were being kept, and stated his belief that the White House did not want the children’s living conditions to be made public.
“My worry is the administration doesn’t want people to know what the condition of these place are or how these kids are being treated in detention,” Kirk said. “Kids can sometimes to be pretty cruel to each other, they don’t want those stories to get out and they don’t want us to know what is going on in these detention facilities. These detention facilities should be completely open to the press and to the American people so that we know how what conditions are, we should be able to talk to the kids who are there.
“I can’t explain the incompetence of the Obama administration,” Kirk said later. “This is a tremendous self-inflicted political wound … This narrative, [that] this is Obama’s Katrina, [is] sticking really hard.”
Photo Credit: Fox News Endless wave of illegal immigrants floods Rio Grande valley
By Jana Winter.
Life jackets of all sizes and the occasional punctured raft are strewn along the banks of the Rio Grande, just south of Mission, Texas, where a relentless onslaught of illegal immigrants eagerly surrender to beleaguered Border Patrol agents around the clock.
It’s a cycle for which there is no end in sight.
“You’re going to be out here a long time,” Fernando, an El Salvadoran child, told FoxNews.com shortly after surrendering to Border Patrol authorities after midnight Saturday. “There are thousands of us.”
With most of the men and women charged with securing the Mexican border busy processing some of the 60,000 illegal immigrants who have made the harrowing – and sometimes deadly -journey to the American border in the past nine months, only a handful of Border Patrol agents drive the riverside loop in a small town called Granjeno just south of Mission, in the Rincon peninsula.
Illegal immigrants of all ages, including many unaccompanied children, run to them to surrender. They are piled into the back of Border Patrol vehicles and taken to a makeshift staging area in Rincon Village, where a large Border Patrol bus waits to transport them to McAllen’s Border Patrol facility.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-15 03:30:262016-04-11 11:07:17Message to the Feds: We Will Not Host Illegal Children in Our States
The Defense Department’s announcement that thousands of America’s finest will be notified in coming weeks that their service to their country is no longer needed -many of whom are serving as commanding officers in Afghanistan – draws the wrath of Dr. K.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-07-15 03:28:062016-04-11 11:07:17WATCH: Krauthammer Slams Obama For ‘Robbing the Military to Inflate the Entitlement State’
