Photo Credit: APEven in the early days of the Clinton White House, consultants and political advisers were scrambling to soften Hillary Clinton’s hard-edged image, looking for ways to “humanize her” for the press and public.
In the latter years, as the media turned, the advice was far more blunt. “Be real,” media consultant Mandy Grunwald told her in a 1999 memo. Grunwald told the first lady the public tends to see her only in “very stern situations,” and warned her not to let the press see her “uncomfortable or testy.”
The advice was contained in roughly 4,000 pages of previously confidential documents from the Clinton administration years, released Friday by the National Archives. The document dump is just the first batch of Clinton papers that will trickle into the public domain in the coming weeks.
The materials will be closely combed by political operatives on both sides of the aisle, as Hillary Clinton weighs a presidential bid in 2016. What the documents reveal about former President Bill Clinton may be less important, politically, than what they reveal about his wife.
The 1999 memo was a particularly frank example of advisers looking to style Clinton for the public. At the time, Grunwald was with the Grunwald Communications firm she founded and was trying to smooth relations between retiring New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Clinton — who would later win Moynihan’s seat. The memo referred to an upcoming “Moynihan event.” Grunwald urged Clinton to stay “conversational” and not raise her voice.
Photo Credit: AFP / Getty ImagesRadical Islamist rebels running the northern Syrian city of Raqqa have made the Christians living in the area an offer they can’t refuse: pay for protection, convert to Islam, or “face the sword.”
In a statement posted to Jihadi websites and signed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-designated emir of the future Islamic caliphate of Raqqa, as well as the founder of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] rebel brigade, Christians are urged to pay a tax in order to continue living under ISIS’s protection. The terms are simple: twice a year wealthy Christians must pay the equivalent of half an ounce of gold — about $664 by today’s market value. Middle-class Christians have to come up with half that sum, and poor Christians can get away with paying a quarter, or about $166.
Terrorism analyst Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi offers a translation of the statement for the Syria Comment blog. ISIS’s so-called “dhimmi pact,” which refers to an ancient piece of legislation that allowed Christians and Jews to live and practice their religion in Islamic kingdoms as long as they paid a tax and submitted to specific rules, lays out what they can expect in return. Their churches will not be attacked, their wealth will not be confiscated, and they will not be physically harmed. They will have the right to practice their religion — as long as they keep their crosses, their Bibles and their churches out of sight. They are not allowed to ring bells, evangelize or pray within earshot of a Muslim, nor are they allowed to sell pork and alcohol to Muslims or bear arms.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-03-01 01:31:582016-04-11 11:11:20Al-Qaeda Rebels in Syria Tell Christians to Pay Up or Die
Photo Credit: AP/Susan WalshVice President Joe Biden on Thursday told Democrats to stop apologizing for their policies and go on offense as party leaders try to overcome pessimism about prospects for the November election.
At a Democratic National Committee gathering, Biden said he and President Barack Obama have an obligation to raise money and campaign for the party’s candidates. He said he has signed up to participate in more than 120 races and that Obama has given him permission to participate in every campaign where he can be helpful.
“I am so tired about hearing about the demise of the Democratic Party. Give me a break,” Biden said. “My central message to you is look: I think we should not apologize for a single thing.”
In his pep talk to state chairmen, the vice president tried to portray the party as starting on solid ground as campaigning gears up.
“There is no Republican Party,” Biden said, accusing the GOP of masquerading as conservative while actually espousing anti-government views that he said Americans reject.
Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny StarrRev. Bill Owens, president of the Coalition of African American Pastors, said Tuesday that the Obama administration’s promotion of abortion “is promoting murder.”
“Something has to be done, and for this man, this administration to promote abortion is promoting murder,” Owens said at the National Press Club on Tuesday when CNSNews.com asked about a report showing that more unborn black babies were aborted than born in New York City.
As CNSNews.com previously reported, in 2012, the number of black babies killed by abortion totaled 31,328, while those born totaled 24,758, according to the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene.
Photo Credit: Sharon ScobleIt’s hard to imagine a creature more menacing than a great white shark swimming in the surf, but a giant crocodile comes close.
An estimated 12-foot crocodile was spotted cruising in the swells this past week at Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia, prompting officials to close the beach to swimmers and surfers for a day.
It’s unclear what lured the reptile into the surf zone, but the unusual sighting generated quite the spectacle.
Sharon Scoble, a Broome local, captured the images that accompany this report after receiving a call from her son, who spotted the croc while driving to the beach.
Beginning Saturday, March 1, students and staff at Tennessee State University will be required to present identification badges at any time that can also track their movements in and out of buildings, according to a local-news report.
After a spate of break-ins and vandalism, officials at the university instituted the new ID requirement as a way to ensure safety on campus, a TSU release said.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-03-01 01:19:452016-04-11 11:11:20Tenn. State University Requires Students to Wear Trackable IDs (+video)
Photo Credit: calaggieHow would wearing an American flag t-shirt possibly incite violence in an American high school? From the opinion:
The court’s ruling: School administrators can force you to remove your American-flag tee if the alternative is a classmate punching you in the face. That’s because, per the Supreme Court, students don’t have the same free speech rights at school that adults do on other public grounds. At school, the name of the game is order and instruction; you’re entitled to free expression to the extent you don’t interfere with those goals, but once you do, the school’s entitled to limit your expression accordingly.
In other words, a bully can get the principal’s office to silence you by promising to beat your ass if they don’t.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-03-01 01:18:072016-04-11 11:11:21Federal Appeals Court: Schools Can Ban Students from Wearing American Flag T-Shirts in order to prevent violence
WASHINGTON — The sniping between establishment Republicans and tea partiers resumed Thursday as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz refused to endorse his state’s senior senator in next week’s Republican primary.
Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican leader, faces tea party-backed Rep. Steve Stockman in Tuesday’s election. Cruz declined to tell reporters how he plans to vote.
“I am not supporting any of the senators from my party or their opponents” in this year’s primaries, Cruz said, adding that he might change his mind later.
Cruz, a tea party favorite and potential 2016 presidential candidate, has infuriated fellow Republicans by forcing uncomfortable votes on issues such as the debt, and by raising money for conservative groups trying to defeat veteran Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Cruz’s comments are especially notable because he is a vice chairman of the GOP committee tasked with winning Senate elections. He criticized the committee’s track record and policy of virtually always backing incumbents.
Ted Cruz To Tea Party Gathering: We’ll ‘Turn This Country Around
By Elizabeth Titus.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told tea party activists on Thursday that he is “filled with the promise that we’re going to turn this country around” after legislative fights over drones, guns and Obamacare last year.
The freshman Republican received a hero’s welcome at a Tea Party Patriots-hosted fifth anniversary event for the movement in Washington, where he discussed the three issues.
“If you listen to the media, if you listen to Democrats — although I repeat myself — they will say the fight to stop Obamacare did not succeed,” said Cruz, who pushed to defund the president’s signature health care law in a fight that led to a government shutdown last fall.
“Really?” Cruz said. “Well, I’m a big believer the proof is in the pudding. Last fall, millions of Americans rose up and said, ‘Stop the disaster that is Obamacare.’ … We elevated the national debate of the incredible harms Obamacare is visiting on millions of Americans.”
Republicans’ poll numbers suffered after the shutdown, but the health care law is still poised to be one of the central issues in this year’s midterm elections. Republicans must net six seats to take back control of the Senate.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstRepublican Cruz puts Clinton odds of White House win at 40 percent
By Thomas Ferraro.
Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Tea Party favorite seen as a potential 2016 presidential contender, on Thursday put Democrat Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the White House at 40 percent.
“The media thinks she is unstoppable, but they also thought she was unstoppable in the 2008 Democratic primary,” which Barack Obama won en route to the White House, Cruz said of the former secretary of state and wife of two-term U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Cruz said Clinton would be vulnerable in a general election for a number of reasons, including what he called Obama’s failed economy and the traditional shift in voter preference.
“There is a natural pendulum in politics,” Cruz said, with the public often ready to turn to the other party after one party has held the White House for eight years.
Photo Credit: Fox News Republican allegations that former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell misled Congress over the White House’s role in crafting the flawed Benghazi “talking points” took a dramatic turn Thursday, with the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee telling Fox News it’s likely Morell will be recalled to testify. Investigators also are reviewing the testimony of former CIA Director David Petraeus, Morell’s old boss, to assess whether he should be recalled as well.
“We are having some transcript reviews. We’ve been continually doing that through the committee,” Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told Fox News. “We’re looking at Director Petraeus’ transcripts and reviews — looking at what information we have now available. Sometimes that second interview can be equally important and it is likely we will have Director Morell up to testify before the committee.”
The debate continues to focus on why the talking points did not reflect the best available intelligence, and what influence the administration brought to bear on the flawed public narrative of the attack in the days immediately following Sept. 11, 2012 – that narrative initially claimed the attacks sprung out of protests over an anti-Islam film.
Among the allegations, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a January 2014 Benghazi report that Morell insisted the talking points were sent to the White House for informational purposes, and not for their input — but e-mails, later released by the administration, showed otherwise.
In response to Rogers’ comments, Morell said in an email to Fox News, “I sent him a letter this afternoon saying that I would very much welcome an invitation to testify in open session before the Committee on Benghazi.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-02-28 02:58:362016-04-11 11:11:21Intel Committee Chairman Poised to Recall Ex-CIA Chief Morell Over Benghazi Testimony, Weighing Same for Petraeus
Photo Credit: The Federalist Arizona is populated largely by warty, crooked-fingered Christians who were waiting excitedly to eject LGBT people from their restaurants, flower shops, and laundromats until Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed SB 1062.
This is the only conclusion one can draw from the hysterical claims peddled by LGBT activists, business leaders, and several prominent Republicans about the infamous religious liberty bill. If the bill were to have been signed into law, we were led to believe that Arizona’s economic competitiveness and international reputation would have been disastrously diminished.
All of the explicit and implicit claims about the negative consequences of SB 1062 were founded in ignorance—in most cases willful, blameworthy ignorance.
Here’s what you need to know about religious liberty and LGBT rights in Arizona.
In 1990, the Supreme Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith established that a “neutral law of general applicability” could impinge on religious practice without violating the First Amendment. Alarmed at this erosion of traditional religious liberty protections, Congress responded by passing nearly unanimously the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which applies the highest level of judicial scrutiny to laws which restrict religious practice.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-02-28 02:54:052016-04-11 11:11:21In Arizona, GOP Shows How Easily It Will Cave On Religious Liberty
