Senior congressional aides and sources in the gun-control community expect the White House to use its executive powers to tighten federal gun laws shortly after President Barack Obama returns from a Hawaiian vacation in early January.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday he anticipates a legal review to continue through the holidays.
Since the deadly shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., White House officials have been, as Earnest has put it, “scrubbing through the law” to determine whether and how Obama can use his constitutional authorities to make it harder for terrorists and other potential mass shooters to legally obtain firearms.
On both sides of the Capitol, sources involved in the guns debate say, as one senior House GOP leadership aide put it, “something is brewing on guns” . . .
Since, however, Republican lawmakers have blocked Democratic measures on stiffening gun laws; and Democrats have kept a mental health bill the GOP has tied to mass shootings from passing, saying they would rather close loopholes in gun laws first. (Read more from “Obama Poised to Tighten Gun Laws After Holidays” HERE)
The New York Times removed significant portions of an article it published on Thursday in which President Obama reportedly made the admission that he failed to recognize Americans’ anxiety level following the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
As often happens with news articles that are published online before being published in print, The Times removed some passages, added others and rearranged copy in the piece, which was entitled “Under Fire From G.O.P., Obama Defends Response To Terror Attacks.”
When unimportant information is involved, outlets rarely acknowledge the changes. And indeed, a spokeswoman for The Times tells The Daily Caller that the article was merely “trimmed” because of space requirements. But the two passages scrubbed from The Times article, written by Peter Baker and Gardiner Harris, appear to have contained significant information about Obama’s public response to the terror massacres. Obama’s reported statements also lend credence to Republican criticism that his response to the terrorist massacres was lacking.
In one of the pre-scrubbed versions of the article, Obama was said to have told a group of about 10 reporters during a two-hour off-the-record meeting held on Tuesday that he did not fully grasp how much anxiety Americans felt following the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino because he didn’t watch enough cable TV.
“In his meeting with the columnists, Mr. Obama indicated that he did not see enough cable television to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments,” that iteration of The Times article reads, according to NewsDiffs.com, a website that tracks changes made to news articles. (Read more from “NYT Scrubs Details from Article About an Obama Off-The-Record Meeting” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-18 23:16:072016-04-11 10:54:53NYT Scrubs Details from Article About an Obama Off-The-Record Meeting
Sen. Marco Rubio missed Friday’s Senate vote approving a massive $1.8 trillion end-of-the-year spending bill and tax package — a day after he suggested that he could try to slow the legislation down.
The Florida Republican, who is running for president, was the only 2016 contender to miss the vote, which is the Senate’s final vote of the year.
Rubio defended his absence in an interview, telling CBS News that “in essence, not voting for it, is a vote against it.”
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), three other presidential candidates, all voted against the legislation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fourth GOP presidential candidate from the Senate, backed the bill. (Read more from “Rubio Misses Spending Bill Vote” HERE)
Donald Trump, a candidate even Republicans once considered a side show, increases his lead yet again in the nomination race, according to the latest Fox News national poll.
The poll also finds Ted Cruz ticking up, Marco Rubio slipping, and Ben Carson dropping.
Trump hits a high of 39 percent among Republican primary voters, up from 28 percent a month ago. The increase comes mainly from men, white evangelical Christians, and voters without a college degree — and at the expense of Carson.
However, the poll is not all good news for the Donald. Despite his increasing advantage in the primary, his support in the general election is down. More on that later . . .
Trump’s 11-point jump in support comes after his comments about stopping non-U.S. Muslims from coming into the country. (Read more from “Poll: Trump Jumps, Cruz Climbs, Carson Sinks in GOP Race” HERE)
Riviera Beach renamed Old Dixie Highway in honor of President Barack Obama during a ceremony on Thursday, a change that city officials say will help move the community past its segregated history.
It is the second road in Palm Beach County to be named in honor of the 44th president, county officials said. Two years ago, Pahokee in western Palm Beach County renamed East First Street to Barack Obama Boulevard.
A crowd cheered as a crew lowered the Old Dixie Highway street sign in Riviera Beach and raised one bearing the sitting president’s name: President Barack Obama Highway.
“We are stepping up to a new day, a new era, and replacing Old Dixie with Barack Obama, who represents change,” Riviera Beach Mayor Thomas Masters told Sun Sentinel news partner WPEC-Ch. 12.
The City Council voted in August to change the highway’s name inside the city limits. The first intersection of roads named after Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will be in Riviera Beach, city officials say. (Read more from “Old Dixie Highway Renamed in Honor of Obama in Riviera Beach” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-18 23:07:292016-04-11 10:54:56Old Dixie Highway Renamed in Honor of Obama in Riviera Beach
By Randy DeSoto. President Obama plans to meet with Muslim leaders later this week to discuss how his administration is working to combat discrimination and acts of hatred against those who practice that faith.
Young Conservatives highlighted the seeming incongruity of concerns the president has about potential backlash towards Muslims versus the real world violence radical Islamists visited on San Bernardino less than two weeks ago.
“What’s truly disgusting about this is how the president hasn’t personally met with victims’ families from the San Bernardino attack, who are dead because a Muslim terrorist decided to go beyond ‘hateful talk’ and end the lives of 14 innocent individuals,” writes Michael Cantrell for Young Cons. (UPDATE: the Obama administration has announced that the President intends to meet with families of the San Bernardino victims today; see the story about this last minute change below)
“Apparently these folks don’t matter enough for Obama to take time out of his busy schedule of doing nothing to show a little kindness. If they were Muslims, that would be a totally different story,” Cantrell believes.
Speaking at a naturalization ceremony held at the National Archives on Tuesday, Obama likened the Syrian War refugees (the vast majority of whom are Muslims) to the Jewish refugees the United States allowed to immigrate to the country following World War II.
“In the Syrian seeking refuge today, we should see the Jewish refugee of World War II.,” the president said. “In these new Americans, we see our own American stories — our parents, our grandparents, our aunts, our uncles, our cousins who packed up what they could and scraped together what they had. And their paperwork wasn’t always in order. And they set out for a place that was more than just a piece of land, but an idea.” (Read more from “Obama Is About to Meet with Islamic Leaders, People Instantly Notice One ‘Disgusting’ Thing” HERE)
Obama makes last-minute decision to tack on San Bernardino pit stop on way to 17-day Hawaiian vacation
By J. TAYLOR RUSHING. President Barack Obama plans to meet privately on Friday with families of the murder victims from the shooting rampage earlier this month in San Bernardino, Calif.
White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will stop in the Southern California community on his way to Honolulu with his family, where he traditionally spends Christmas.
‘While he is en route, the president will stop in San Bernardino, California, to visit privately with the families of the victims of the terror attack that occurred earlier this month,’ Earnest said. (Read more about the President’s last minute decision after meeting with Islamic leaders to meet with the victims of their jihadist brothers HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-17 20:46:422016-04-11 10:54:57Obama Is About to Meet with Islamic Leaders, People Instantly Notice One ‘Disgusting’ Thing [+video]
More than any other issue, immigration is driving the rivalry between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, presidential rivals focusing on the divisive topic in their closing messages to Republican voters before the sprint to the Iowa caucuses.
Cruz, a Texas senator and tea party firebrand, sees Rubio’s support for a more forgiving immigration policy as his greatest vulnerability among conservatives who overwhelmingly oppose a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. Rubio, a Florida senator, sees Cruz’s shifting rhetoric on immigration as a prime example of a larger pattern of political pandering.
Indeed, among the Republican Party’s two Hispanic presidential hopefuls, few issues offer a clearer contrast in tone, if not policy. Their competing strategies played out in early voting states on Thursday as the freshman senators pushed to separate themselves from the crowded GOP field six weeks before the first primary votes are cast.
“He’s going to have a hard time because he’s not told the truth about his position in the past on legalization,” Rubio said of Cruz while campaigning in Iowa. “It’s not an attack. It’s a fact.”
“That is utter nonsense,” Cruz said of Rubio’s charge while talking to reporters in Las Vegas. He declined to say what he would do with the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, but accused Rubio of joining with Democrats to support “amnesty.” (Read more from “Immigration Fuels Cruz-Rubio Republican Clash” HERE)
The House is poised to pass a bipartisan $1.1 trillion bill to fund the government, with GOP and Democratic whip teams going into overdrive to boost their numbers before the Friday morning vote.
Democratic leaders have voiced numerous objections to the package, particularly the inclusion of an end to a ban on crude oil exports and the failure to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. But with the White House urging support — and dozens of conservatives expected to buck GOP leaders and vote no — the Democrats are also scrambling to convince wary rank-and-file members that the current package is the best they can get.
Senior Obama administration officials and Cabinet secretaries began reaching out to congressional Democrats, urging them to back the spending deal, a source said.
And Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who both endorsed the massive omnibus bill, were personally pressing undecided members and “working it,” according to a whip team member.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his top lieutenants appeared much more relaxed than their Democratic counterparts. Still, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and other leaders were making calls, sending text messages and button-holing colleagues on the floor to drive up their vote total, lawmakers and aides said. (Read more from “Ryan and Pelosi Corral Votes as $1.1T Funding Bill Speeds to Floor” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-17 20:43:332016-04-11 10:54:57Ryan and Pelosi Corral Votes as $1.1T Funding Bill Speeds to Floor
The federal government has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came to the U.S. to study and then took jobs, often in violation of the terms of their visas, according to a new internal audit.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t even consistently collect information or have the tools to monitor all of the foreign students who take part in the optional practical training (OPT) program, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report released late Friday.
“The problems with OPT are extensive and serious. The report not only calls into question the department’s oversight of the program, but also whether such lack of oversight is a serious national security risk,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who released the report, said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
Officials who run the Student and Exchange Visitor Program have deemed OPT to be a low-risk program, but the new findings suggest that may be wrong.
Immigration agents told investigators they view the program as a gateway to illegal immigration, since students who are approved are allowed to work not just during their time in school, but also for up to 29 months after they complete their studies.
(Read more from “U.S. Has Lost Track of Tens of Thousands of Foreign Students” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-17 20:43:132016-04-11 10:54:58U.S. Has Lost Track of Tens of Thousands of Foreign Students
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s reliance on poorly-sited weather stations to calculate surface temperatures is inflating the warming trend of the U.S. and maybe even the rest of the world, according to a landmark study looking at three decades of data.
“The majority of weather stations used by NOAA to detect climate change temperature signal have been compromised by encroachment of artificial surfaces like concrete, asphalt, and heat sources like air conditioner exhausts,” Anthony Watts, a seasoned meteorologist and lead author of the study, said in a statement Thursday.
These “compromised” weather stations run hotter than stations that are well-sited, and are used by NOAA as a benchmark to make upward adjustments for other weather stations that are part of the agency’s official temperature record.
Watts and his fellow researchers found only 410 “unperturbed” weather stations out of the 1,218 stations used by NOAA to determine U.S. climate trends. These “unperturbed” stations don’t need to be adjusted by NOAA because they had not been moved, had any equipment changes, or change in the time temperatures were observed.
Watts found well-sited stations show significantly less warming than poorly-sited stations from 1979 to 2008 — the time period was chosen in order to respond to NOAA papers from 2009 and 2010 justifying its weather station adjustments. Now, Watts has years of evidence showing NOAA is relying on shoddy weather stations to make its temperature adjustments. (Read more from “NOAA Relies on ‘Compromised’ Thermometers That Inflate US Warming Trend” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-17 20:41:082016-04-11 10:54:58NOAA Relies on ‘Compromised’ Thermometers That Inflate US Warming Trend
