Why the Obama Administration’s Most Notable Photograph Was Almost Nixed

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Embedded photographers, in the eyes of some, are the unsung heroes when historic events occur. Reflecting on the achievements of war photographers, one may not soon forget the photo taken as the U.S. flag was being raised over Iwo Jima by soldiers after the tiny South Pacific island was taken from the hands of the Japanese. And during the Obama presidency, no single photograph taken by a photographer may be as important as the one taken by Pete Souza when the president’s staff was in the situation room as Osama bin Laden’s compound was being infiltrated by U.S. personnel.

After all, it had been nearly 10 years since bin Laden claimed responsibility for attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon using hijacked commercial airliners as flying missiles. Bin Laden’s whereabouts had been the question on the minds of many, including the military, which was engaged in a manhunt of the FBI’s most wanted man.

But the famous photo almost didn’t get released, according to a new book written by Josh King titled Off Script. According to the Washington Examiner, King wrote that Souza knew he had a winner when he shot the photo that showed Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military and administration officials apparently watching attentively as live video feeds of the assault were broadcast directly to the situation room on May 2, 2011, the day bin Laden was killed in the raid, which involved a stealth helicopter insertion of two dozen Navy Seals. . .The problem with the photo arose when it was realized a classified document was on the desk in front of Clinton, the details of which were also captured by the photo. (Read more from “Why the Obama Administration’s Most Notable Photograph Was Almost Nixed” HERE)

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Logan Officials Message to Clinton Campaign

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After the Clinton campaign staff attempted to use the City of Logan Fire Department facilities for the Clinton upcoming visitations to the area, fire department officials contacted the Mayor of Logan about the situation. Logan officials then took matters into their own hands and sent an e-mail sent to Mike Browning, a representative for Senator Joe Manchin.

The e-mail states the following:

Mike,

While we appreciate all that you and Senator Manchin’s office have done for the City Of Logan over the years we must make the following statement:

Bill and Hillary Clinton are simply not welcome in our town. Mrs. Clinton’s anti-coal messages are the last thing our suffering town needs at this point. The policies that have been championed by people like Mrs. Clinton have all but devastated our fair town, and honestly, enough is enough. We wish them the best in their campaign, however we again state they are not welcome on our city properties. We hope that you will respectfully consider NOT visiting our community. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, 304-xxx-xxxx. I am writing this on behalf of the City Of Logan.

(Read more from “Logan Officials Message to Clinton Campaign” HERE)

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An Army Captain Is Suing Obama for This Major Reason

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Bush-era war authorizations do not give President Obama authority to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an Army officer argued in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against Obama.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court by an intelligence officer stationed in Kuwait who says he supports the fight against ISIS but believes it is being carried out illegally because Congress hasn’t specifically authorized it.

“How could I honor my oath when I am fighting a war, even a good war, that the Constitution does not allow, or Congress has not approved?” Capt. Nathan Michael Smith wrote. “To honor my oath, I am asking the court to tell the president that he must get proper authority from Congress, under the War Powers Resolution, to wage the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.”

Obama has sought an authorization for use of military force (AUMF) from Congress. But Congress has been hesitant to take it up, with Republicans worried it would be too restrictive and some Democrats worried it wouldn’t be restrictive enough.

In the absence of a new AUMF, Obama has said he has the authority to fight ISIS from the 2001 authorization to fight al Qaeda, from which ISIS originated. (Read more from “An Army Captain Is Suing Obama for This Major Reason” HERE)

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Republican ‘Unity’ Meeting Scheduled for Next Week

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After a day of tensions between two of the nation’s highest-profile Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office announced Friday that Ryan will meet with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday . . .

“Having both said we need to unify the party, Speaker Ryan has invited Donald Trump to meet with members of the House Republican leadership in Washington on Thursday morning to begin a discussion about the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November,” Ryan’s office said in a statement.

Trump, Ryan and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus will also hold a separate meeting.

During the Republican presidential primaries, Ryan voiced displeasure with some of Trump’s proposals on immigration, in particular his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

On Thursday, Ryan said he was “not ready” to support Trump’s campaign for president, and suggested that Trump needs to take the first steps to show he will unify the party. Later that day, Trump fired back a response saying he would not support Ryan’s agenda and suggesting that politicians should do what is best for the American people . . .

Trump said Friday that Ryan’s refusal to support him was “not a good thing” and “something the party should get solved quickly.” (Read more from “Republican ‘Unity’ Meeting Scheduled for Next Week” HERE)

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Ryan Shows Trump There’s a Cost to How Trump Does Business

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Donald Trump once warned Speaker of the House Paul Ryan he would pay a “big price” if Ryan didn’t get along with him. Look who is paying now.

Yesterday Ryan, in publicly saying he will not at this point endorse the presumptive nominee called Trump’s bluff. When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would support Trump, Ryan said “Well, to be perfectly candid with you, Jake, I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now.”

And, with that, maybe Trump is forced to finally start realizing the consequences of how he conducted his campaign, rotten in both personality and policy. There’s a steep cost to the way Trump’s campaign has done its business and he, not Ryan, is going to pay.

Others in GOP leadership should follow Ryan’s lead. They have “leverage “as Trump would say. Get on record now, stating your opposition to Trump and make a demand for him to change. If he doesn’t improve, which he won’t, you are free to run as far away from the Trump train wreck as your legs can carry you.

People’s reactions to the prospect of a President Trump separates the wheat from the chaff.

And, the chaff is easy to see. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump, robotically murmuring that Republicans must support Republicans to win and stop Democrats from winning the White House.

This time, however, Trump is scarier than Hillary Clinton to many. This is a man who gets his news from the National Enquirer for goodness sakes, who came on to the political scene during the Obama Administration by peddling birtherism on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Had any other candidate, any one of them, won the nomination, this would be the best news cycle of their campaign. People would probably disagree on various policies but Republicans could come together and agree the candidate was a man of integrity and character.

But not Trump.

This should be Trump’s honeymoon period, but good men and women should prepare for divorce. (For more from the author of “Ryan Shows Trump There’s a Cost to How Trump Does Business” please click HERE)

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Lobbyists Struggle With Trump Reality

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Republican lobbyists in Washington are struggling to come to grips with the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency.

“A lot of people woke up [on Wednesday] and went, ‘Oh, gosh, this is not a dream,’ ” said Jeff MacKinnon, a principal at Farragut Partners. “I don’t think downtown was really prepared for it happening so quickly. It did catch people off guard” . . .

Much of the downtown Republican crowd — lobbyists, consultants and PR operatives — built their careers working for establishment politicians like former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and President George W. Bush . . .

Once Trump all but clinched the nomination this week, the topic of conversation among lobbyists quickly turned to the question of how Trump is going to finance a billion-dollar campaign.

Washington’s lobbying industry traditionally serves as an important resource for presidential candidates’ cash supply; supportive lobbyists often stay in close contact with campaign committees, participate in conference calls and recruit supporters. (Read more from “Lobbyists Struggle With Trump Reality” HERE)

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Many Americans Renounce Citizenship, Even Before President Trump

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It seems crazy to call it the ‘New Normal’, but once again, record numbers of Americans are renouncing citizenship. Every three months, the Treasury Department publicly names individuals who renounced. It is surely more about FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act enacted in 2010, than it is about politics. Still, numbers are flying, with one poll saying that 1 in 4 Americans would consider leaving if Trump is elected. Others claim they will leave if Hillary is elected.

In reality, of course, most who bristle about politics are not serious. And for those who are, they surely mean a temporary move, not a final exit. In contrast, giving up citizenship is a big deal. Yet the number of published expatriates for the first three months of 2016 was a record 1,158. In 2015, there were approximately 4,300 expatriations. Comparing present to past suggests that Americans renouncing citizenship have risen 560% from their Bush administration high. There are now 18 times as many renouncers as in 2008.

Of course, these numbers seem tiny compared to the influx of immigrants. Yet expatriations have historically been much lower, making the uptick worrisome. Moreover, the published list is incomplete, with many not counted. Surprisingly, no one seems to know exactly how big the real number is, even though the IRS and FBI both track Americans who renounce. There is no single explanation, though some renounce because of global tax reporting and FATCA. One law adding to the mix is the IRS power to revoke passports.

The reasons for renouncing can be family, tax and legal complications. Dual citizenship isn’t always possible, as this infographic from MoveHub shows. And leaving can be expensive. Some countries have no fee, but America charges $2,350 to hand in your passport. That is more than twenty times the average of other high-income countries. The U.S. government has collected about $12.6 million in fees since the fall of 2014, after hiking its fee to renounce citizenship by 422%. Some renouncers write why they gave up their U.S. citizenship. (Read more from “Many Americans Renounce Citizenship, Even Before President Trump” HERE)

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The Most Googled Mom-Related Terms in Different States

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With Mother’s Day around the corner, our moms are in many of our hearts, minds, and…Google searches.

In honor of the occasion, real estate site Estately did some research on the mom-related terms Americans most frequently Google. And, as it turns out, these terms are not the same throughout the country. When it comes to motherhood, different states have different preoccupations.

The site looked at which terms were most popular in each state compared to others — not which were most popular overall, or else many states would probably look the same — and found some pretty hilarious results.

(Read more from “The Most Googled Mom-Related Terms in Different States” HERE)

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Alabama House Passes Bill to Keep Abortion Clinics Away From Schools

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The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban abortion clinics from operating “within 2,000 feet of the property or campus of a public school.” The bill is now on Republican Governor Robert Bentley’s desk and if he signs it, the law will be challenged by the ACLU and a Huntsville abortion clinic.

The bill, which passed 73-18, says that “the Alabama Department of Public Health may not issue or renew a health center license to an abortion clinic or reproductive health center that is located within 2,000 feet of the property or campus of a public school.”

The bill’s sponsor, Alabama State Senator Paul Sanford (R), said in March that his hope with the legislation is that no more abortion clinics in the state “would ever open that close to small children.”

Sanford has said his bill is not intended to close clinics, but would prevent schoolchildren from seeing the “chaos” that sometimes surrounds them, according to the Decatur Daily . . .

The Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, which is located across the street from Edward H. White Middle School, would have to move if the bill becomes law. (Read more from “Alabama House Passes Bill to Keep Abortion Clinics Away From Schools” HERE)

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BUMMER: Hillary to Face FBI Interrogators Within Weeks

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As we reported yesterday, just when Hillary thought the email scandal was behind her, and she could shift her focus to the newly minted GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, an order by Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court decided to lay out ground rules for interviewing multiple State Department officials, and ordered at least six current and former State Department employees to answer questions, all in an effort to finish the depositions in the weeks before the party nominating conventions.

On the heels of interviewing Hillary Clinton’s top personal aide Huma Abedin, as we detailed previously, it appears The FBI is finally ready to go after the Emailer-in-chief herself…

Source confirms to @CBSNews Hillary Clinton to be interviewed by the FBI within the coming weeks in the e-mail server investigation.

— Charlie Kaye (@CharlieKayeCBS) May 6, 2016

As CBS reports, a source has confirmed that Hillary Clinton will be interviewed by the FBI within the coming weeks, in connection with the investigation into her private email server. As reported last night, Hillary’s top aide, Huma Abedin was interviewed by the FBI at its Washington field office in April.

The FBI and Justice Department have been investigating whether sensitive information that flowed through Clinton’s email server was mishandled. Abedin was interviewed at the FBI’s Washington field office last month. The FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s email server was first reported in August.

The Clinton campaign has said it’s confident that the FBI’s review “will conclude that nothing inappropriate took place.” There’s no timetable for completing the investigation, and there have been no statements about how much longer the investigation will take.

As we reported on Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington said he may order Clinton to testify under oath about whether she used a private email server to evade public records disclosures.

The order from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a request from the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch to question six current and former State Department staffers, including Abedin, about the creation and purpose of the email system.

Clinton has dismissed the idea that she could face legal trouble over the use of the server, responding to a debate question in March about the prospect of a federal indictment by saying, “It’s not going to happen.”

Perhaps she intends on pleading da’fif’ before the FBI? (For more from the author of “BUMMER: Hillary to Face FBI Interrogators Within Weeks” please click HERE)

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