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June 2015

Posted by Jay Caruso on June 16, 2015 19 Comments
When you're one of the oldest candidates in the Presidential race, you have to find a way to appeal to a younger crowd. Barack Obama was only 46 when he entered the race for President back in 2007. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is 67.  It wasn't much of a surprise to see her invoke a 50 year old song during her campaign event on Saturday. It backfired on her---the Rubio team quickly responded. Considering that, it was rather odd to see the list of songs her campaign chose to be on the Hillary 2016 Spotify Playlist:
It appears that Hillary Clinton is riding the streaming music wave. Her campaign released her official 2016 Spotify playlist Saturday morning ahead of her first major rally in New York -- and they're lively tunes containing themes of positivity and resiliency. None of the 14 songs on the 67-year-old candidate's playlist was released before 1999, and the list includes popular female artists such as Sara Bareilles, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande.
Ironic isn't it? She should have had Alanis Morissette on the list.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2015 4 Comments
Because I am a glutton for punishment, I read the anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website. I do it, so you don't have to. One of the authors there posted this video put out by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, apparently one in a series, as if it were a bad thing. Seems pretty much on target to me. [NOTE - The video was taken down after furious complaints from the international media, including The NY Times. Here is a version captured by another outfit] This comes, of course, in anticipation of a hit job on Israel by the UN Human Rights Commission in a report to be released this week regarding the 2014 Gaza conflict. In that conflict, the media played a key role in covering up Hamas use of civilians as shields:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 15, 2015 43 Comments
I officially need a flowchart to handle the strange and offensive racial evolution of Rachel Dolezal. Last week, the internet exploded with stories about Rachel, a white woman who has spent the majority of her career "identifying" as an African-American woman. While I still haven't figured out how one can with a straight face "identify" as someone of another race, especially in the historical context of slavery and discrimination, I think it's pretty clear that Dolezal's actions have activists on both sides of the aisle crying foul. Today, The Smoking Gun revealed that she has a history of playing both sides of the race card. Back in 2002, Dolezal (then Rachel Moore) sued Howard University on the basis of racial discrimination after she claimed she was discriminated against---as a white woman:
Dolezal, then known as Rachel Moore, named the university and Professor Alfred Smith as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court. During the pendency of the civil case, Smith was chairman of Howard’s Department of Art.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 15, 2015 4 Comments
Contrary to what the headlines are telling you, there's more going on in Congress than the debate over "fast track" free trade agreements. At the end of last month, the Obama Administration worked via the EPA to drastically expand the power federal regulators have over private property owners. The new "Waters of the United States" ("WOTUS") rule (re-dubbed the "Clean Water Rule") was decried as a power grab by both industry moguls and conservative members of Congress, who believe the changes stand to kill jobs and raise the cost of doing business, especially for those working in the agricultural industries. Republican Congressman Bob Gibbs (OH-7) is leading the charge in the House to overturn the WOTUS rule. The Regulatory Integrity Protection Act passed out of the House in mid-May with bipartisan support (237 republicans and 24 democrats voted for the measure) and if enacted, would force the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to overhaul the new rules to specifically identify waters covered and not covered under EPA regulations. The Act would put an emphasis on local control and individual property rights, which Gibbs says should be a key concern for anyone who stands to be affected by and increased EPA presence.

Posted by Casey Breznick on June 15, 2015 11 Comments
Sexual harassment allegations levied against Republican Carl DeMaio by an ex-campaign staffer derailed the GOP rising star's otherwise successful campaign. DeMaio's upsetting loss last November was arguably attributed to these tenacious claims, but now it turns out the allegations were all false. As a staunch fiscal conservative with a track record on the San Diego City Council to prove it, and as the first openly gay man to run for Congress as a Republican, DeMaio certainly made heads turn and headlines across the country.  He made efforts to reach out to traditionally non-Republican communities a central strategy of his campaign in a congressional district, California's 52nd, that is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Both Tea Party and Establishment wings of the Republican Party took a liking to DeMaio and pumped money and good press his way, with a lot of talk surrounding his "New Generation Republican." His opponent, freshman Democrat incumbent Scott Peters, meanwhile, was just another textbook liberal awash in the sea of citizens fed up with the Democrat agenda. But then came the October Surprise: DeMaio was accused by ex-campaign staffer Todd Bosnich of unwelcome sexual advances in and outside of the office, and similar claims cropped up from his time on the San Diego City Council. Bosnich also claimed that he was threatened by the DeMaio campaign to remain mum about the sexual misconduct, lest he ever wanted to work in politics again.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 15, 2015 4 Comments
The event that once marked the official beginning of GOP presidential run will not take place this year. "We set the table and they didn't come to dinner," Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann reported The Des Moines Register. The Iowa Straw Poll was far from an accurate scientific poll. Declaring the champion the candidate who spent the most to win, candidates vying for national publicity would drop major bank for the "______ wins Iowa Straw Poll" headlines and the subsequent appearance of a legitimately strong campaign. In 2011, Mitt Romney declined to participate and this year, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Mike Huckabee announced they too would bypass the Iowa fun. The straw poll was one massive fundraising event for the Republican Party of Iowa. It's not entirely surprising campaigns recognized skipping the over-hyped pay-to-play event might be a better utilization of their time and resources. Howard Kurtz explained the Iowa Straw poll sham during his broadcast in May: According to the Des Moines Register, there were three reasons the straw poll was nixed this year:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 15, 2015 15 Comments
Monday, Daily Mail designated print pool reporter, David Martosko, was denied access to a Hillary Clinton campaign event in New Hampshire.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 15, 2015 23 Comments
In 1849, gold inspired a big rush to California and a whole lot of thievery. In 2015, water has become the new gold!
Police are warning for businesses and residents to start locking up their taps. California’s drought has gotten so bad, people are stealing water. Thieves busted the locks on the spigots at a popular Asian shopping center on Barber Lane in Milpitas, just to get their hands on what has become liquid gold. Palo Alto resident Jason Zhur said he’s shocked it has come this far. “But water’s becoming more expensive than gas,” he said. ...Many businesses here have surveillance cameras, but apparently they weren’t a deterrent. “I imagine it’s come to that point because water rates are going up, everything is going up, now,” said Zhur.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 15, 2015 22 Comments
Here at LI, we've covered numerous aspects of ObamaCare from its questionable passage to legal challenges to various executive branch "tweaks" and shady exemptions to the devastating effects the law has had on millions of Americans. Now, apparently, the executive branch is going above and beyond the law in its efforts to keep the unpopular law afloat despite ample evidence that it's a disaster. Obama has repeatedly shown that he doesn't think he needs Congress' approval to change the law, and now he's being accused of funding parts of it without Congressional appropriations.  Funds set aside specifically for tax refunds owed to hard-working Americans are being used to subsidize the Basic Health Program associated with ObamaCare.  According to Paige Winfield Cunningham:
Leading Republicans are charging that the Obama administration is illegally funding yet another part of Obamacare, in addition to the part of the healthcare law over which House Republicans are already suing. Their latest criticism centers on the Affordable Care Act's basic health program, an optional program for states that started this year, in which low-income residents can get subsidized, state-contracted health plans instead of buying them through the new online marketplaces. The administration is funding the program illegally by using a pot of IRS money used for tax refunds, says Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., who leads oversight efforts on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Posted by Jay Caruso on June 15, 2015 35 Comments
It seems every time you turn around, the Hillary Clinton campaign team is attempting to copy Marco Rubio. She scheduled her official campaign announcement the day after him. On Saturday during a campaign event (some of her supporters have laughably attempted to claim this was the "official official" announcement), she brought up a theme of 'yesterday', using the song of the same name by the Beatles to proclaim her GOP opponents were all about the past. Ironically, it was a similar theme that Marco Rubio used during his campaign launch. During his announcement he said:
"Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday."
Because of that, Rubio's team was ready to respond to Hillary and did so with this ad:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2015 13 Comments
It's too late to undo the massive propaganda campaign surrounding the 2014 Gaza conflict, which Israel called Operation Protective Edge. False statistics about civilian casualties were put out by Hamas ministries and then adopted without question by the UN, "human rights" groups, and the media to create the narrative that "most" or "almost all" or the "vast majority" of deaths were civilian. Critics of Israel have yet to explain how Israel was supposed to stop Hamas from firing rockets, tunneling under the border, or landing commandos by sea without firing into the civilian areas from which Hamas was operating. During the 2014 Gaza conflict, we covered the deliberate Hamas tactic of firing from civilian areas (including those next to hospitals and apartments,) as well as how Hamas used the main Gaza hospital as a military headquarters. Almost all of this was covered up by the media: http://youtu.be/Nu-e5qWXx-k Round two in the propaganda war against Israel will take place this week, when the U.N. Human Rights Council releases its report on alleged Israeli war crimes. The UNHCR is the body completely obsessed with Israel.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 14, 2015 17 Comments
On Saturday, CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield slipped in a puddle of gaffe when she described the man who shot up the Dallas police department headquarters as "very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well." I wrote about her initial comments here: CNN Anchor Power-Gaffes Dallas PD Shooting Story The reaction was swift and vicious. (My own comments, linked above, weren't exactly gentle.) Even the Houston and Fort Worth police officers' associations jumped on the pile, demanding an apology from CNN and Whitfield:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 14, 2015 34 Comments
Jeb Bush is expected to announce his run for president tomorrow, and his team has already released their first video and are touting it as Bush introducing himself to the American people. The spot focuses on Bush's time as governor of Florida and hits specific notes on women, minorities, the disabled, education, and jobs. Take a look below, hat tip to The Shark Tank: We decided to use the campaign logo as the featured image of this post because there's been some buzz about it on Twitter.

Posted by New Neo on June 14, 2015 25 Comments
As discussed earlier, the Obama administration seeks to transform neighborhoods of privilege by tinkering with their makeup and introducing more diversity, otherwise known as Section 8 housing. The way the federal camel gets its nose inside the tent is, as usual, through money. What seems like a largess at first almost never is. Not only does the money have to come from somewhere, but the inevitable price is an increase in federal government regulation of our lives. This particular directive would apply to communities that get HUD funds, which is an awful lot of communities (about 1250):
The agency is also looking to root out more subtle forms of discrimination that take shape in local government policies that unintentionally harm minority communities, known as “disparate impact.”... To qualify for certain funds under the regulations, cities would be required to examine patterns of segregation in neighborhoods and develop plans to address it. Those that don’t could see the funds they use to improve blighted neighborhoods disappear, critics of the rule say... Critics of the rule say it would allow HUD to assert authority over local zoning laws. The agency could dictate what types of homes are built where and who can live in those homes, said Gosar, who believes local communities should make those decisions for themselves rather than relying on the federal government.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 14, 2015 14 Comments
Bob Woodward appeared on CNN's State of the Union program with Jake Tapper today and claimed that one of Hillary's favorite sayings is "fake it until you make it." He also pointed out the fact that she has a trust deficit issue and that she hasn't been forthcoming enough with the emails from her time at the State Department. Here's more from Blake Seitz of the Washington Free Beacon:
Woodward: Clinton Email, Donor Disclosure ‘Not Enough’ The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward laughed off Hillary Clinton’s reluctant disclosure of emails and foundation donors as “not enough” on Sunday’s State of the Union. Democratic National Committee Vice-Chairwoman Donna Brazile mounted a peculiar defense of Clinton, claiming that she has “never seen a politician who has laid out more information about herself. We have read her emails, we have seen all the donors—” “Not enough! Not enough!” Woodward interjected, as panelists S.E. Cupp and Dana Bash laughed.
Watch the video:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 14, 2015 18 Comments
Love him, hate him, or feel ambivalent toward him, Mitt Romney was "right about everything," and that is standing him in good stead with the GOP.  Indeed, Politico is reporting that Romney is "working to rid the GOP presidential primary of the mayhem that marked his own race":
Mitt Romney is working with an unlikely collaborator — Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s 2012 campaign — in the hopes of ensuring that the GOP primary produces a mainstream conservative without any of the mayhem that marked his own race. The two, who speak monthly, aim to convince the wealthy contributors bankrolling various candidates to work together to avoid the kind of primary election chaos that Romney believes laid the seeds for his defeat in 2012. The former Massachusetts governor is also considering endorsing a candidate to achieve his goal. They’re unmistakable signs of Romney’s newly assertive role in the Republican Party but also of his determination to guarantee the GOP an unbloodied nominee with broad-based appeal.
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