Veteran reporter Sharyl Attkisson contends the latest batch of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server, released by the U.S. State Department, proves that the “law has been blatantly violated.”
The State Department Monday released over 7,000 emails as part of a court order from a federal judge. More than 25 percent of the Democratic presidential candidate’s emails have been disclosed.
Attkisson wrote the following on her personal website Tuesday after the emails were released:
The newly-released batch of Hillary Clinton emails provides further proof that Freedom of Information (FOI) law has been blatantly violated. The documents include material directly responsive to a FOI request I made back in 2012 after the Benghazi terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds. However, the material was not produced at the time, as required by law. Once again, there appears to be nobody who holds government officials and agencies accountable for their routine violation of this law. So the infractions occur frequently and with impunity. If nobody policies our government officials and agencies–if they are above the law–then how does a lawful society function?
The former CBS News reporter also said she made several Freedom of Information Act requests for emails related to the terrorist attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya — including one sent by Clinton adviser Huma Abedin to Clinton on September 14, 2012. (Read more from “Reporter Makes Bombshell Announcement About Hillary’s Newly Released Emails That No One Realized” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:26:582015-09-01 23:26:58Reporter Makes Bombshell Announcement About Hillary’s Newly Released Emails That No One Realized
Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spent tens of millions of dollars on his reelection bid last year promising voters all the magnanimous things he’d do to stop Obama’s radical agenda were he crowned Majority Leader of the Senate. After less than a year in office McConnell has resigned his position and has bestowed the privilege of majority leader on the Democrat leader indefinitely.
Speaking to a local reporter in Hazard, Kentucky, McConnell has, once again, reiterated his intent to pass a budget bill continuing to fund Planned Parenthood because the Democrats told him so:
“We just don’t have the votes to get the outcome that we’d like,” McConnell said. “I would remind all of your viewers: The way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it and the president has to sign it. The president has made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood, so that’s another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood.”
Let me remind all of our viewers that there is a legislative process and there is a budget process. With regards to the legislative process, both houses of Congress must pass a new statute in order to change the law, and the president must agree to sign the bill. Accordingly, McConnell is correct in asserting that without control of all branches of government, Republicans are unable to pass new laws. But the budget process works just the opposite. So long as just one body of Congress is controlled by Republicans and they refuse to fund a certain aspect of government, that function is not funded. It takes just one body of government to wield the power of the purse; it takes all three branches to fund government.
But won’t the federal government shutdown when the Democrats balk at a funding bill that excludes their sacred funding for #PlannedButcherhood?
Freeze frame at this point. It is this question and this political dynamic that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the current Republican Party does not share our values. We are not asking for a funding fight over something like Social Security, the minimum wage, or labor laws. We are asking that, in chronicling the barbaric harvesting and selling of organs from babies, taxpayer funding not be sent to these groups. If Republicans are incapable of messaging this to the American people and confidently declaring without a shred of diffidence in their voices that Democrats will rue the day for shutting down the government in order to fund torture of babies, they should just shut the lights in their stuffy offices and resign.
Here’s the dirty little secret Mitch McConnell refuses to divulge. He is accepting the premise that Democrats win every showdown – no matter the issue or the circumstances. Under his premise and his system of governance, it will make absolutely no difference if Republicans win back the White House in 2016. Well, let’s take a trip into the future and picture this scenario unfolding in 2017. Republicans win the White House and maintain control of Congress, albeit with a slim majority in the Senate. Democrats will filibuster every single minor legislative vehicle, much less something as important to them as funding for abortions. What will McConnell do come budget time? They simply won’t have the votes to even get the bill to the president’s desk.
What’s worse, the public is more likely to blame Republicans for a shutdown when they officially control all levers of government. Wait for McConnell’s lame excuses: “just wait until 2019 and let us win a super-majority in the Senate.” And you know what? Even if that happens, there will always be a number of Republicans who will join with the Democrats in opposing any bold reforms.
Without real leadership and without leaders who share our values, every noble idea will be stymied by insurmountable odds. The excuses never end.
Earlier this summer, Mark Levin publicly called for McConnell to resign. It’s time for all conservatives to follow suit. It’s time for the GOP presidential candidates to be asked if this is the leader they want in the Senate as quarterback for their legislative and budgetary initiatives. Perhaps, the answer to that question will reveal more about them than any of their statements on policy issues. (For more from the author of “McConnell Plans to Fund Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:25:462015-09-01 23:25:46McConnell Plans to Fund Planned Parenthood
The increasingly violent tone of national rhetoric that a Texas sheriff recognized as a contributing factor in the murder of one of his deputies was left unaddressed in a White House statement regarding last Friday’s murder of Deputy Darren Goforth.
President Obama’s Monday night statement expressed official regrets at the incident.
“Targeting police officers is completely unacceptable – an affront to civilized society,” the statement said. “As I said in my State of the Union Address, we’ve got to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the door at the end of his shift.
“That comfort has been taken from Mrs. Goforth,” the statement continued. “So we must offer her our comfort – and continue to stand up for the safety of police officers wherever they serve.”
The statement did not address the wider context of the shooting, as America debates the degree to which the Black Lives Matter movement is serving as an instigator for violence. Other voices have done so.
Joseph Evans, Jr., the former vice chairman and executive director of the Jefferson County, TX, Republican Party, released a video that called for a level of reaction Obama did not take. (Read more from “Obama Finally Breaks His Silence on Slain Texas Cop, but Ignores Something Huge” HERE)
By Jeremy Diamond. Donald Trump said Thursday he is opposed to tightening gun laws in the U.S. but is in favor of addressing mental health to prevent shootings, after a man shot two journalists on live television.
“This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “It’s not a question of the laws, it’s really the people.”
Calling the gunman a “very sick man,” Trump said mental illness is “a massive problem” in the U.S. He suggested more resources should be devoted to addressing mental health — hoping to prevent shootings like the one in Virginia, which he called “really, very sad.”
Trump did not offer specific solutions to addressing the mental health problem, but said there are ‘”so many things that can be done” and repeatedly said the Virginia shooter, who killed himself Wednesday after killing two others, should have been “institutionalized.”
“In the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized,” Trump told Cuomo. “At some point somebody should have seen that, I mean the people close to him should have seen it.” (Read more from “Donald Trump: It’s Mental Health, Not a Gun Problem” HERE)
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Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself
By David Knowles. Republican front-runner Donald Trump began to flesh out his economic vision for America, and it includes raising taxes on the wealthy.
Trump said during a Wednesday interview on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect that he would like to change the tax code.
“I would change it. I would simplify it,” Trump told hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann from the lobby of Trump Tower on New York’s 5th Ave. Specifically, Trump targeted hedge fund profits, which are currently taxed at a lower rate than regular income.
“I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars-a-year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous,” Trump said. “I want to lower taxes for the middle class.”
Asked whether his proposed changes meant he was prepared to raise taxes on himself, the billionaire framed his answer in terms of fairness. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:21:392015-09-01 23:21:39Donald Trump: It’s Mental Health, Not a Gun Problem
By B. Christopher Agee. After riding his tough stance on illegal immigration to a commanding lead among Republican presidential candidates, Donald Trump broached another crime-related topic at a recent campaign event in Tennessee.
In a message citing the need for and benefits of strong local law enforcement, Trump offered a direct promise to any gang members causing trouble under his administration.
“You know the gang members in Baltimore and Chicago,” he said, “and these are some tough dudes, they’re going to be out so fast.”
He told an enthusiastic crowd that a Trump White House would “get rid of those gang members so fast your head will spin.”
Though he did not give specifics regarding that plan, he did note the importance of allowing police to perform their duties unfettered by the demands of anti-cop activists.
“I know cities where people are afraid to even talk to people,” he said, “because they want to be able to retire and have their pension.” (Read more from “There’s a New Group of People Donald Trump Says He Wants to Remove From America’s Streets” HERE)
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Increase Taxes? Talk by Donald Trump Alarms G.O.P.
By Alan Rappeport. For years, Republicans have run for office on promises of cutting taxes and bolstering business to stimulate economic growth, pledging allegiance to a Reaganesque model of conservatism that has largely become the party’s orthodoxy.
But this election cycle, the Republican presidential candidate who currently leads in most polls is taking a different approach, and it is jangling the nerves of some of the party’s most traditional supporters.
The tendency of that candidate, the billionaire developer Donald J. Trump, to make provocative, headline-grabbing speeches has helped obscure an emerging set of beliefs: that he would raise taxes in certain areas, particularly on corporations that he believes do not act in the best interests of the United States.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on American companies that put their factories in other countries. He has suggested he would increase taxes on the compensation of hedge fund managers. And he has vowed to change laws that allow American companies to benefit from cheaper tax rates by using mergers to base their operations outside the United States.
Alarmed that those ideas might catch on with some of Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals — as his immigration policies have — the Club for Growth, an anti-tax think tank, is pulling together a team of economists to scrutinize his proposals and calculate the economic impact if he is elected. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-31 22:06:282015-08-31 22:06:28There’s a New Group of People Donald Trump Says He Wants to Remove From America’s Streets
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and the clerk will arrive at work Tuesday morning to face her moment of truth.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will have to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, defying her Christian conviction, or continue to refuse them, defying a federal judge who could pummel her with fines or order that she be hauled off to jail . . .
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the landmark decision. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience.” (Read more from “Supreme Court Rules Against Clerk in Homosexual Marriage Case” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-31 22:04:262015-08-31 22:04:26Supreme Court Rules Against Clerk in Homosexual Marriage Case
Armed Black Panther members marched in front of the Waller County jail and shouted, “You’re gonna stop doing what you’re doing, or we will start creeping up on you in the darkness.”
The statement was made just two weeks prior to the assassination of a Harris County deputy sheriff.
Shannon Miles, a black male, allegedly came “creeping up” behind Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth in the darkness on the night of August 28. While Goforth stood at a convenience store pumping gas into his patrol vehicle, Miles allegedly raised a pistol and shot him dead . . .
Not part of a chant, the march leader, wearing the rank of colonel, shouted directly to Harris County mounted deputies through a megaphone. “You think we’re not pissed off a bunch about y’all killing our sisters? You think it’s okay? [We’re] the wrong n***ers to mess with. You’re gonna stop doing what you’re doing, or we will start creeping up on you in the darkness.”
The rally, also covered by Breitbart Texas, took place at the Waller County Jail where inmate Sandra Bland took her own life by hanging herself with a trash bag after her arrest following a traffic stop in the town of Prairie View. She was accused of an illegal lane change and assaulting a police officer. After being left in jail by her family for three days, Bland hung herself. (Read more from “Armed Black Panthers to Texas Cops: ‘We Will Start Creeping up on You in Darkness'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-31 21:55:102015-08-31 21:55:10Armed Black Panthers to Texas Cops: ‘We Will Start Creeping up on You in Darkness’
The State Department released more than 7,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails online Monday night, deeming 125 more of Clinton’s email messages to be classified, a move certain to fuel the roiling controversy over her use of a private email server instead of an official government account when she served as secretary of state.
Much like the other document dumps in recent months, the emails reveal the day-to-day of Clinton’s time at Foggy Bottom as well as the people with whom she consulted on matters of policy. They also showed confusion that was created by her unusual email set-up.
In late February 2010, a help desk analyst with the State Department emailed an account with a simple question, seemingly unaware that the owner of the private account was none other than the secretary herself.
“I work as a Help Desk Analyst and it has come to my attention that one of our customers has been receiving permanent fatal errors from this address, can you please confirm if you receive this message,” wrote Christopher Butzgy in a message that Clinton forwarded to top aide Huma Abedin inquiring about its contents.
“What happened is judith sent.you an email. It bounced back. She called the email help desk at state (I guess assuming u had state email) and told them that. They had no idea it was YOU, just some random address so they emailed. Sorry about that. But regardless, means ur email must be back! R u getting other messages?” Abedin emailed Clinton. (Read more from “State Releases 7,000 Hillary Clinton Emails” HERE)
A 6-foot tall statue of Jesus that has spent the last 60 years overlooking a northwestern Montana ski hill may stay there, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments from a group of atheists and agnostics that allowing the statue to remain on U.S. Forest Service land violates the constitutional separation of church and state . . .
“The Court rightly rejected Freedom From Religion Foundation’s radical idea that a privately owned memorial standing in the middle of a ski resort violates the Constitution,” said Eric Baxter, senior counsel with the Becket Fund, which defended the Flathead National Forest, forest supervisor Chip Weber and the U.S. Forest Service on appeal. (Read more from “Appeals Court Upholds Jesus Statue on Montana Mountain” HERE)
By John McCormick. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has emerged as a leading Republican presidential candidate in Iowa and is closing in on frontrunner Donald Trump in the state that hosts the first 2016 nomination balloting contest.
The latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows billionaire Trump with the support of 23 percent of likely Republican caucus participants, followed by Carson at 18 percent. When first and second choices are combined, Carson is tied with Trump.
Trump finds himself in a vastly better position than when the previous Iowa Poll was taken. He has become a credible presidential candidate to many likely Republican caucus-goers. The real estate mogul is rated favorably by 61 percent and unfavorably by 35 percent, an almost complete reversal since the Iowa Poll in May. He finds his highest ratings among those planning to attend the caucuses for the first time (69 percent) and limited-government Tea Party activists (73 percent). Just 29 percent say they could never vote for him, a number cut in half since May.
Although he isn’t generating the headlines enjoyed by Trump, Carson has quietly built a dedicated network of supporters in Iowa. During the past month, he also aired more ads than any other presidential candidate in Iowa. Carson has the highest favorability rating among Republican candidates, with 79 percent of likely GOP caucus-goers seeing him positively.
Those glowing views of Carson, who has a compelling life story and is seeking to become the nation’s second black president, could make it hard for Trump or other rivals to attack him as the campaign heats up this fall. Christian conservatives, who represent nearly 40 percent of likely caucus participants in the poll, may be starting to coalesce around the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. (Read more from “Here’s the Candidate Edging Close to Front-Runner Trump in Latest Poll” HERE)
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Republican Candidates Address Donald Trump and Volatility in Polls
By Steve Eder. As the summer of Donald J. Trump winds down, some of the real estate mogul’s rivals took to the Sunday political talk shows, discussing plans for emerging from Mr. Trump’s shadow in the Republican field.
Scott Walker
The Wisconsin governor denied that his campaign has been forced to shift course by the potency of Mr. Trump’s candidacy . . .
Chris Christie
As his own campaign struggles to take hold, the New Jersey governor told Fox News Sunday that he plans to be on the main stage for the second Republican debate Sept. 16 in Simi Valley, Calif., even though several polls show he no longer ranks in the top 10 of the Republican field. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-30 21:49:322015-08-30 21:49:32Here’s the Candidate Edging Close to Front-Runner Trump in Latest Poll
Veteran reporter Sharyl Attkisson contends the latest batch of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server, released by the U.S. State Department, proves that the “law has been blatantly violated.”
