Louie Gohmert: “Appalled that Jade Helm hostile areas have Republican Majority”

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Photo Credit: National Journal

Photo Credit: National Journal

By Matt Berman. U.S. Special Operations Command is preparing to launch a five-month, multi-state exercise across private and public land to prepare Army special forces for threats anywhere in the world. Or at least that’s what the Pentagon would want you to believe. Officials and citizens in Texas, one of the states involved, see something potentially more nefarious in the exercise, dubbed Jade Helm 15. And now Rep. Louie Gohmert is joining them.

“Over the past few weeks, my office has been inundated with calls referring to the Jade Helm 15 military exercise scheduled to take place between July 15 and September 15, 2015,” Gohmert said in a Tuesday statement. “This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law. Certainly, I can understand these concerns.”

“When leaders within the current administration believe that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans, or even ‘cling to guns or religion,’ patriotic Americans have reason to be concerned,” Gohmert wrote.

The congressman took particular issue with the layout and labels of the Pentagon map for the exercise. “Once I observed the map depicting ‘hostile,’ ‘permissive,’ and ‘uncertain’ states and locations, I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority, ‘cling to their guns and religion,’ and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution.” Gohmert called on the Pentagon to change the map, the names on the map, and said “the tone of the exercise needs to be completely revamped so the federal government is not intentionally practicing war against its own states.” (Read more from “Louie Gohmert: Appalled that Jade Helm Hostile Areas Have GOP Majority” HERE)

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Pentagon: Texas Has Nothing to Fear From Upcoming Military Exercise

By James Rosen. The Pentagon has a message for Texas: chill.

Defense officials Monday dismissed as “wild speculation” an Internet-fueled claim that a massive summertime exercise called Jade Helm 15 for special operations commandos is a covert operation by President Barack Obama to take over Texas.

That claim was given legitimacy by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott’s order last week for the Texas State Guard to monitor the exercises.

“Operation Jade Helm poses no threat to any American’s civil liberties,” Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday. “Operation Jade Helm is being conducted by Americans – by, specifically, American special forces personnel.”

Jade Helm 15 will be one of the biggest peacetime military exercises in six decades. Starting July 15 and lasting two months, thousands of Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALS and other special operations forces will simulate war missions in mainly remote areas of Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Here’s a State That Is Trying to Block Federal Gun Control

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Photo Credit: Scott Olson / Getty

Photo Credit: Scott Olson / Getty

On Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill to prohibit the state from implementing or enforcing federal gun “laws,” rules, regulations and orders that are contrary to the Tennessee state constitution. It passed 74-20 in the House, and 29-1 in the Senate.

Introduced by Sen. Richard Briggs, Senate Bill 1110 (SB1110) will ban Tennessee state or local public funds, personnel or property from being used for the “implementation, regulation, or enforcement of any federal law, executive order, rule or regulation regulating the ownership, use, or possession of firearms, ammunition, or firearm accessories” if such use “would result in the violation of Tennessee statutory or common law or the Constitution of Tennessee.”

Originally introduced in the House as HB1341 by Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, the bill represents and important first step to ending federal gun control in the state.

“I’m from the cut that there is no need for Washington D.C. to be the end all and be all with regards to the regulatory world,” said Weaver. “We should respect our 10th Amendment and shift the power back to the states and that’s what House Bill 1341 does.” (Read more from “Here’s a State That Is Trying to Block Federal Gun Control” HERE)

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“Should We Get Rid of All the Jews?”: Megyn Kelly Accuses Bill O’Reilly Of “Catering to the Jihadis”

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Photo Credit: Salon

Photo Credit: Salon

On “The O’Reilly Factor” last night, Megyn Kelly shamed host Bill O’Reilly for daring to criticize Pam Geller’s absolutist version of free speech, saying that he was “catering to the jihadis.”

The pair were discussing the shooting of two Islamic extremists in Garland, Texas, on Sunday when O’Reilly echoed Donald Trump and claimed that Geller and the American Freedom Defense Initiative “provoked” the attempted attack.

Geller and the AFDI — an organization that has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — were “trying to make a point about the First Amendment and free speech,” Kelly said, by hosting their “Draw the Prophet” contest at the same facility that had hosted a seminar on Islamophobia in January.

“So they wanted to defy the fear the jihadists have imposed on the world?” O’Reilly asked.

“On the free speech principle — on the First Amendment principle — she’s 100 percent correct,” Kelly responded. She claimed that the First Amendment was designed to defend “the most outrageous, offensive, incendiary speech — speech at the fringes, debate at the edges, things that make people upset.” (Read more from “Should We Get Rid of All the Jews?”: Megyn Kelly Accuses Bill O’Reilly Of “Catering to the Jihadis” HERE)

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Chilling Recorded Conversations of American Muslim Who Opened Fire on Anti-Islam Event in Texas [+video]

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Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

By Lydia Warren. The former terror suspect shot dead by police on Sunday after he and another gunman stormed an anti-Islam art contest in Texas had said he intended to ‘fight to the death’ for Allah.

Elton Simpson, 30, and his roommate Nadir Soofi, 24, were killed outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland after a security guard was shot during a controversial competition for the best caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Court documents have now revealed that Simpson, who was born in Illinois before moving to Phoenix, Arizona and converting to Islam, was well known to the FBI.

In 2010, he was convicted of lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Somalia, where they suspected he planned to join a terror group.

‘The defendant falsely stated to special agents of the FBI that he had not discussed traveling to Somalia, when in fact he had discussed with others traveling to Somalia for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,’ a complaint reads. (Read more from “Chilling Recorded Conversations of American Muslim Who Opened Fire on Anti-Islam Event in Texas” HERE)

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How Texas “Terror” Shooter Elton Simpson Avoided Prison in 2011

By James King. The attorney who once defended one of two men who opened fire at a “Draw Muhammad” event in Texas on Sunday says she was “shocked” to learn that he was involved in the attack. She says she has represented a number of people charged with terrorism-related crimes. Some of them are the “worst of the worst,” but Elton Simpson was “one of the good ones,” she said.

“He was always respectful to me and my staff—did everything he was supposed to do,” attorney Kristina Sitton told Vocativ.

According to Sitton, Simpson didn’t come from a Muslim family and didn’t convert to Islam until he was in high school. “He said he was running with a bad crowd in high school—smoking, drinking and stuff,” she said. “He said Islam got him away from that stuff.”

Sitton defended Simpson against charges that he made false statements to an FBI agent in 2010 about a trip he was planning to take to Somalia to study Islam. He was facing up to eight years in prison if federal prosecutors had been able to convince Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Mary Murguia that the trip was related to international or domestic terrorism. Ultimately, Murguia in 2011 sentenced him to three years probation for the false statement. According to federal court records obtained by Vocativ, the judge determined that the feds didn’t make their case—despite audio recordings of Simpson talking about “jihad” with an FBI informant. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee Joining G.O.P. Race on Heels of Ben Carson [+videos]

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.By Alan Rappeport. For the Republican Party, the presidential candidates keep coming.

The next wave arrives this week, with Carly Fiorina announcing her long-shot bid for the Republican nomination Monday morning and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas set to announce his own on Tuesday. Ben Carson announced his bid on Sunday night. They will join Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul in the race.

Ms. Fiorina started things off low-key on Monday with an announcement, which is to be followed by a call with reporters and a virtual town-hall-style meeting. Later in the week, she will head to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

A former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, Ms. Fiorina is the second woman to make a run for the White House in this election cycle, following Hillary Rodham Clinton’s announcement last month. Ms. Fiorina brings strong business acumen and a promise to be a more compassionate version of Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. And she has suggested that she is the perfect antidote to Mrs. Clinton, who many believe has an easy path to the Democratic nomination.

“I think that if Hillary Clinton were to face a female nominee, there are a whole set of things she won’t be able to talk about,” Ms. Fiorina said at a breakfast in Washington last month. (Read more from “Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee Joining G.O.P. Race on Heels of Ben Carson” HERE)

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Famed Neurosurgeon Ben Carson Announces White House Campaign

By Ed White. Retired surgeon Ben Carson has made it official, telling a crowd in his hometown of Detroit that he’s running for president.

The former head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins hospital has never run for public office. But he’s a star among some conservatives and will try to parlay his success as an author and speaker into a competitive campaign.

He told his rally: “I’m Ben Carson and I’m a candidate for president.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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‘Critical Alert’: Jeff Sessions Warns America Against Potentially Disastrous Obama Trade Deal

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is sounding the alarm to his colleagues Senate-wide, warning them and the American public with a “critical alert” published Sunday evening that voting for the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) deal that would set up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal with Asian countries is fraught with problems and concerns.

“Congress has the responsibility to ensure that any international trade agreement entered into by the United States must serve the national interest, not merely the interests of those crafting the proposal in secret,” Sessions’ team writes in a document that lays out the top five concerns with the Obama trade deal. “It must improve the quality of life, the earnings, and the per-capita wealth of everyday working Americans. The sustained long-term loss of middle class jobs and incomes should compel all lawmakers to apply added scrutiny to a ‘fast-track’ procedure wherein Congress would yield its legislative powers and allow the White House to implement one of largest global financial agreements in our history—comprising at least 12 nations and nearly 40 percent of the world’s GDP.

“The request for fast-track also comes at a time when the Administration has established a recurring pattern of sidestepping the law, the Congress, and the Constitution in order to repeal sovereign protections for U.S. workers in deference to favored financial and political allies.”

The Sessions document then goes point-by-point for five full pages through the TPA trade deal, laying out why it wouldn’t help Americans—rather, it would likely hurt American workers—and why the deal doesn’t in fact provide Congress with more power over trade despite talking points from the Obama trade deal’s proponents like House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)60%, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)58%, and House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)40%.

The first point lays out how the deal would result in a “consolidation of power in the executive branch,” a point in which Sessions takes to task those like Ryan who have argued that the deal would return more power to Congress. (Read more from “‘Critical Alert’: Jeff Sessions Warns America Against Potentially Disastrous Obama Trade Deal” HERE)

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Texas Governor Orders State Guard to Keep an Eye on Federal Troops’ Jade Helm Exercise

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Photo Credit: NPR

Photo Credit: NPR

By Wade Goodwyn. [W]hen rookie Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he was ordering the Texas State Guard to monitor a Navy SEAL/Green Beret joint training exercise, which was taking place in Texas and several other states, everybody here looked up from their iPhones. What?

It seems there is concern among some folks that this so-called training maneuver is just a cover story. What’s really going on? . . .[Last week there was] a public briefing by the Army in Bastrop County, which is just east of Austin, got raucous. The poor U.S. Army colonel probably just thought he was going to give a regular briefing, but instead 200 patriots shouted him down, told him he was a liar and grilled him about the imminent federal takeover of Texas and subsequent imposition of martial law. . .

The next day Gov. Abbott decided he had to take action. He announced that he was going to ask the Texas State Guard to monitor Operation Jade Helm from start to finish.

“It is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed upon,” Abbott said.

The idea that the Yankee military can’t be trusted down here has a long and rich history in Texas. But that was a while back. Abbott’s proclamation that he was going to keep his eye on these Navy SEAL and Green Beret boys did rub some of our leaders the wrong way. (Read more from “Texas Governor Ordered State Guard to Keep an Eye on Federal Troops’ Jade Helm Exercise” HERE)

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Texas Governor Orders Troops to ‘Monitor’ Jade Helm

By Dylan Baddour. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered members of the Texas Military to monitor federal troops in an upcoming two-month training exercise planned for the Lone Star State.

Operation Jade Helm will bring the U.S. military’s most elite soldiers, including the Green Berets and Navy SEALS, to Texas for simulated special operations in a hostile territory. But plans for the exercise have roused fears in many Texans of a federal occupation.

In a letter to Major General Gerald Betty of the Texas State Guard, Abbott said his order was “to address concerns of Texas citizens.”

“During the training operation, it is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property right and civil liberties will not be infringed,” the governor wrote. “I am directing the Texas State Guard to monitor Operation Jade Helm 15.”

The State Guard is a militia of volunteer reservists, headquartered at Camp Mabry in Austin, meant to serve in times of emergency or catastrophe. It is one of three branches of the Texas Military, a force commanded by the governor. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Alan Dershowitz: Charges Against Baltimore Cops Won’t Stick

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images (1)Criminal charges filed Friday against six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray were based on “politics and crowd control,” not justice, renowned civil rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax TV.

“This is a very sad day for justice . . . Today had nothing to do with justice. Today was crowd control. Everything was motivated by a threat of riots and a desire to prevent riots,” Dershowitz said on “The Steve Malzberg Show.”

“The mayor outrageously said we’re going to get justice for the victim, the family and people of Baltimore, never mentioning the defendants. Under our Constitution, the only people who are entitled to justice are the defendants.

“They are presumed innocent, they need due process of law, and the mayor and the state attorney have made it virtually impossible for these defendants to get a fair trial. They have been presumed guilty.”

Dershowitz made the comments hours after Baltimore’s top prosecutor, State Attorney Marilyn Mosby, announced criminal charges against six cops who were suspended after Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in custody in a police van. (Read more from “Alan Dershowitz: Charges Against Baltimore Cops Won’t Stick” HERE)

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Bill Clinton Says Nothing ‘Sinister’ in Foreign Gifts to Charity

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Photo Credit: Personal Liberty

Photo Credit: Personal Liberty

Former President Bill Clinton said criticism over his family foundation’s donations from foreign governments is politically motivated and there is no evidence to support suggestions that the gifts influenced Hillary Clinton’s behavior as secretary of state.

“I asked Hillary about this and she said, you know, no one has ever tried to influence me by helping you,” the former president said in an interview with NBC News broadcast Monday. “No one has even suggested they have a shred of evidence to that effect.”

There has been a “deliberate attempt to take the foundation down,” Clinton said. But he doesn’t believe there was “anything sinister in trying to get wealthy people in countries that are seriously involved in development to spend their money wisely in a way that helps poor people and lifts them up.” He added that the foundation had never done anything “knowingly inappropriate.”

Donations to the Clinton Foundation have come under new scrutiny since the former first lady announced her decision to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. Last month, the nonprofit group conceded that it had made mistakes in how it disclosed foreign donors and said it would refile some tax forms. The organization also said it would limit gifts from foreign governments to six Western nations.

Former President Clinton said the policy change “absolutely” didn’t suggest that it was inappropriate to have accepted millions in donations from nations such as Saudi Arabia. (Read more from “Bill Clinton Says Nothing ‘Sinister’ in Foreign Gifts to Charity” HERE)

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Sheriff Clarke: Why Are We Surprised at Sub-Human Behavior in American Ghettos? Lib Policies Created It

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1111+CustomBy Carmine Sabia. Outspoken Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. blasted Baltimore rioters and the left-wing agenda he says created the powder keg that blew up into violence.

On Fox News’ “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Clarke told the host that liberal policies, not the death of accused drug dealer Freddie Gray, are responsible for the violence in the city.

“Like Baltimore, like Ferguson, like New York and many other areas where failed liberal government policies have led to high unemployment, chronic poverty, failing schools,” Clarke said. “This is what besets the Baltimore area. Ninety percent of the homicide victims in the Baltimore area are black as are ninety percent of the suspects. That’s a bigger problem than Freddie Gray.”

He added that the rioters, under any other circumstance, wouldn’t care about Freddie Gray’s life.

“These individuals that are rioting and lotting right now and throwing rocks and bottles do not know Freddie Gray, do not care about Freddie Gray,” he said. “If they were in a nightclub in Baltimore [they] would shoot and kill him for bumping into them on the dance floor.” (Read more from “Sheriff Clarke: Why Are We Surprised at Sub-Human Behavior in American Ghettos? Lib Policies Created It” HERE)

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Baltimore Mob Pounces Over False Alarm; Unarmed Black Man NOT Shot by Cops

By Carmine Sabia. Reaction was fast and furious after Baltimore police and Fox News reported that a black man was shot “multiple times” following a police chase on the same street where riots broke out after the death of Freddie Gray, but as it turned out those reports were inaccurate.

Witnesses said the unidentified man was shot by police, but Baltimore police, who initially tweeted that the man was shot, are now saying those reports are untrue.

The event was witnessed by Fox News’ Mike Tobin, who initially incorrectly reported it as a police involved shooting.

Tobin said he “clearly saw a revolver on the sidewalk” at the scene of the shooting and said he didn’t know what prompted the chase but did witness the man running from police. (Read more from this story HERE)

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