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August 2015

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 14, 2015 96 Comments
Thursday night, National Review's Charles Cooke joined author of Adios America!, Ann Coulter, on Sean Hannity's Fox News show. The exchange is particularly interesting because it perfectly illustrates the deep divide in the conservative ranks over Trump's candidacy. The segment begins with Coulter and Hannity exchanging their favorite Trump insults of the day. "He's a funny insulter, but he's more than that," Coulter said. "I mean, he's clearly right about the Mexican wall thing. This is part of what's appealing about him. Not only is he the only one seriously talking about immigration and the only one I think saying, he'll believably build a wall while the rest of them are coming up with nonsense excuses."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2015 25 Comments
We noted in a post yesterday that the federal court, in the Judicial Watch FOIA case involving records relating to Huma Abedin's outside employment. had ordered to Department of State to make a supplemental filing today as to efforts to search the server turned over by Hillary to the Department of Justice. The State Department just filed an August 14, 2015 Status Report (full embed at bottom of post), in which it states that it is not even attempting to search the server. The reason is that the server is not under State Dept. control, and it does not feel legally obligated to try to search a server in the possession of another agency. In addition, the State Dept. says that is it relying on Hillary's declaration under penalty of perjury that all documents which are or potentially are federal records already have been produced by Hillary's attorneys. This makes Hillary's sworn declaration all the more central. As we documented last night, there are gaps in the explanation given by Hillary and her attorney's as to the server, including searches. James F. Peterson, a Senior Attorney at Judicial Watch,* provided the following statement:
“The State Department again has ignored a court order to provide any additional details about the missing emails of Secretary Clinton and her staff. Additional court-ordered steps to discover this information plainly are now required.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2015 73 Comments
Megyn Kelly has not only been a rising star, she is at the top of the Fox News food chain, with the possible exception of Bill O'Reilly. We explored her success -- and anti-Fox News Media Matters' frustration -- in Megyn Kelly’s success must be driving Media Matters crazy-er. Kelly had some uncomfortable on-air back and forth with Donald Trump during the first debate, particularly on the issue of how Trump treats women: That was followed by a multi-day lambasting of Kelly by Trump post-debate, including the infamous (and disputed) "blood coming out of her eyes, or wherever" comment, resulting in Trump being uninvited from the RedState annaual gathering:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2015 16 Comments
Victory Day, formerly known as VJ Day, formerly known as Victory Over Japan Day, no longer is celebrated anywhere in the U.S. except in my formerly home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  It is celebrated the second Monday in August, even though Japan didn’t actually formally surrender until September 2, 1945.
The Ocean State is the only one that still observers an official holiday marking Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. That’s been the case since 1975, when Arkansas dropped the commemoration, which it had already rechristened “World War II Memorial Day” by that point. There have been attempts to rename the holiday here in Rhode Island, too – Gov. Ed DiPrete tried to transform it into Governor’s Bay Day, and in 1995 there was a bid to start to calling it “Peace and Remembrance Day” – but protests from veterans and traditionalists have always put the kibosh on them. There’s no question World War II had an enormous impact on Rhode Island. More than 100,000 of the state’s residents served in the war, and 10,000 were killed, injured or lost.
There is a memorial outside the library in Barrington, Rhode Island, where we used to live, with the names of 26 town residents killed during World War II. Twenty-six. From a tiny town in a tiny state. I think it is nearly impossible for us today to appreciate the sacrifices made. [caption id="attachment_138488" align="alignnone" width="489"]http://www.rivvasc.org/VVMGIS/VVMGISH.html [Barrington, RI][Image Source][/caption]Or the will it took to insist on unconditional surrender. Or the joy when the war truly was over.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 14, 2015 20 Comments
The U.S. reopened its embassy in Cuba yesterday, which also happened to be Fidel Castro's 89th birthday. Castro used the occasion to insist that the United States owes Cuba millions of dollars over the trade embargo. Yahoo News reported:
Fidel Castro to US: You owe us millions Fidel Castro marked his 89th birthday Thursday by insisting the United States owes Cuba "many millions of dollars" because of the half-century-old American trade embargo. Castro spoke out in an essay published in local media a day before US Secretary of State John Kerry makes a historic visit to Cuba to reopen the US embassy as part of the countries' restoration of diplomatic relations. The trade embargo that the United States slapped on communist Cuba in 1962, three years after Castro seized power by ousting a US-backed regime, remains in effect despite the thaw. President Barack Obama wants Congress to lift it, although US officials say this will take time and is not an automatic part of the restoration of ties, as it requires congressional action. Many Republicans, who control both chambers of the legislature, oppose the idea, insisting Cuba has to improve its human rights record and make other democratic reforms.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 14, 2015 47 Comments
Dr. Ben Carson came into the public eye with his 2013 Prayer Breakfast speech at the White House.  Conservatives, myself included, were thrilled to see a prominent physician speak out for life and against many Obama policies . . . with Obama squirming in his chair only a few feet away. We love someone who is brave enough to stand for their principles and unafraid to take on the powers that be (as witnessed by the strong conservative support we are currently seeing for Trump). Dr. Carson was, many conservatives thought and still think, just what the doctor ordered. There was a hiccup along the way, however, when Dr. Carson made his remarks that the Second Amendment should only being applied to some people, depending on where they live. Populated areas, he felt, were not the place for legal gun ownership. He later clarified these remarks and asserted that he is "extremely pro–Second Amendment, no question about it,” and the issue kind of faded away. Now, Dr. Carson is facing another controversy stemming from Dr. Jen Gunter's blog post stating that he "once did research on 17-week aborted fetal tissue." It seems that Dr. Carson was one of several authors listed on a paper, published in Human Pathology in 1992, detailing his and others' study of adult and fetal tissue.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 14, 2015 25 Comments
Lois Lerner is back in the news. According to a new report, emails Lerner sent to a friend reveal that the called Republicans evil and dishonest. She also criticized the Citizens United ruling as one of the worst things to happen in the United States. Andrew Kugle of the Washington Free Beacon:
Lois Lerner: GOP is ‘Evil and Dishonest’ Former IRS official Lois Lerner said that Republicans are “evil and dishonest,” in a email dated March 26, according to Fox News reporter James Rosen. In the email, Lois Lerner described the time when she was called back to testify about the IRS targeting of conservatives before Congress. “They called me back to testify, on IRS ‘scandal,” Lerner wrote. “I took the fifth again and they had been so evil and dishonest in my lawyer’s dealings with them.”
Here's the video report with James Rosen of FOX News:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 14, 2015 6 Comments
The Center for Medical Progress' undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood's baby part harvesting operation have dramatically changed the national conversation on the sanctity of life. In addition to prompting serious soul-searching among life-long pro-abortion believers, CMP's videos have galvanized the pro-life movement. On August 22, pro-lifers will attend rallies at Planned Parenthood clinics in 180 cities across 43 states. Backed by a massive pro-life coalition, #ProtestPP's mission is simple:
ProtestPP is a coalition of pro-life groups calling for a National Day of Protest on August 22, 2015 at Planned Parenthood facilities all across America. Our goal is to raise awareness of the heartless and even illegal activities of Planned Parenthood by going to where the killing and harvesting of body parts from aborted children takes place. The four main sponsors are: Created Equal, the Pro-Life Action League, 40 Days for Life, and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. Creating a presence at neighborhood Planned Parenthood facilities is essential to inform the public about what is going on behind closed doors. Local sidewalk counselors and activists are a key component to shutting down Planned Parenthood in the long term.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 13, 2015 29 Comments
There is a time gap which may hold the key to Hillary's hide-and-seek email game. According to the Washington Post and other reporting, a Colorado server company obtained possession of Hillary's server in 2013, transferred the data, leaving a blank server with no usable data at a storage facility in New Jersey. Yet, in a letter filed on August 12, 2015 with the federal Court in the Judicial Watch FOIA litigation regarding Huma Abedin's outside employment, Hillary's lawyer, David Kendall. represented that Hillary did not ask counsel to review her emails until late 2014. [Full embed at bottom of post.] He also confirmed that the Colorado company has had possession of the original server since 2013. David Kendall letter Clinton Emails 8-12-2015 excerpt * * * David Kendall letter Clinton Emails 8-12-2015 excerpt 2 So how could Hillary's lawyers review a server no longer in Hillary's possession, and which had been wiped clean?

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 13, 2015 27 Comments
News related to the Animas River spill continues to stream from Colorado, including the discovery that a warning that a spill of wastewater was likely if EPA's plans to drain the mines went forward as planned had been issued a week earlier. The Silverton Standard published an eerie prediction made by professional geologist Dave Taylor detailing a sequence of events that could lead to environmental catastrophe on July 30, 2015. The editorial included the assertion that the EPA was poised to launch a "Superfund Blitzkrieg". Gateway Pundit has a copy of the full letter; a summary of the key points I would like to cover is below:
...Based on my 47 years of experience as a professional geologist, it appears to be that the EPA is setting your town and the area up for a potential Superfund blitzkrieg. ...[M]ake no mistake, within seven to 150 days all of the 500 gpm flow will return to Cement Creek. Contamination may actually increase due to disturbance and flushing action within the workings. The "grand experiment" in my opinion will fail. And guess what [EPA representative] Mr. Hestmark will say then? Gee "Plan A" didn't work so I guess that we will have to build a treatment plant at a cost to taxpayers of $100 million to $500 million (who knows). Reading between the lines, I believe that the EPA's plan all along. The proposed Red & Bonita plugging plan has been their way of getting a foot in the door to justify their hidden agenda for construction of a treatment plant. After all, with a budget of $8.2 billion and 17,000 employees, the EPA needs new, big projects to keep them in existence."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 13, 2015 31 Comments
Hillary is politically wounded by her never-ending email scandal, which keeps sucking the life out of her favorability ratings, and has Democrats panicked with fear:
“I’m not sure they completely understand the credibility they are losing, by the second,” said one Democratic strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At some point this goes from being something you can rationalize away to something that becomes political cancer. And we are getting pretty close to the cancer stage, because this is starting to get ridiculous." “Look, this is a classic example of the cover-up being 10 times worse than the so-called crime — though in this case there wasn't a crime,” said another progressive strategist. “The culture of secrecy that has surrounded the Clintons — understandably, in some cases — has now yielded a situation where she did something that wasn't necessary and looks nefarious.”
Joe Biden insiders are making it known he's seriously considering a run in the wake of Hillary's stumbles and Bernie Sanders' surprising surge. Elizabeth Warren is a likely entrant if Hillary falls further and Democrats seek a savior. Even John Kerry -- just before Hillary's current troubles started -- said "Nobody says never"' -- so he must be relishing a run now, particularly if he cements the Iran deal. But the best sign that Hillary is in trouble is that even Al Gore insiders are talking up a potential run. Yes, Al Gore. From Buzzfeed, Al Gore Insiders “Figuring Out If There’s A Path” For Him To Run:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 13, 2015 18 Comments
In the wake of the heart-wrenching videos concerning Planned Parenthood's sale of "fully intact" aborted babies and their assorted "baby parts," sometimes without the mother's consent, Alabama governor Bentley, Louisiana governor Jindal, and New Hampshire's Executive Council took steps to defund Planned Parenthood in their states. Because these defunding measures involve Medicaid, a federally-funded program, the Obama White House is warning states that they may be breaking the law by accepting Medicaid funding and excluding Planned Parenthood.  The Hill reports:
The Obama administration has warned Louisiana and Alabama that they could be violating federal law by cutting off Planned Parenthood from their states’ Medicaid programs. The Republican governors in both states this month terminated their state Medicaid contracts with the organization in the wake of controversial undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price of fetal tissue for medical research.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on August 13, 2015 7 Comments
A high-profile trial is currently underway in Germany. 26 year-old Ebrahim H.B. and 27 year-old Ayoub B. are facing terrorism charges after returning back from Syria, having served as ISIS combatants. Just like in U.S., the German mainstream media too is clueless about the motivations of these two jihadists. Media can’t credibly talk about “resentment” and “alienation” in case of this relatively prosperous duo, it has to contend with "personal distress" and trauma as main reasons to explain the pathological behaviour of the alleged terrorists. Ebrahim H.B., a German citizen of Tunisian-origin is charged with planning a suicide bombing in Baghdad. The media repeatedly emphasized the "quiet" and "shy" nature of the alleged ISIS-mastermind, who joined the Terrorist group just because his “planned wedding was called off”. The leading German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported [Author’s Translation]:
On Monday, Ebrahim H.B. told the Regional High Court in Celle that he had been very upset at that time. In spring of 2014 his fiancée called off their planned wedding. “I felt extremely humiliated by that.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 13, 2015 29 Comments
The Hillary email scandal gets curiouser and curiouser with the revelation that among the emails already identified were at least two emails containing top secret satellite and signals intelligence. The Daily Beast reported yesterday, The Spy Satellite Secrets in Hillary’s Emails:
... There is no doubt that she, or someone on her State Department staff, violated federal law by putting TOP SECRET//SI information on an unclassified system. That it was Hillary’s private, offsite server makes the case even worse from a security viewpoint. Claims that they “didn’t know” such information was highly classified do not hold water and are irrelevant. It strains belief that anybody with clearances didn’t recognize that NSA information, which is loaded with classification markings, was signals intelligence, or SIGINT. It’s possible that the classified information found in Clinton’s email trove wasn’t marked as such. But if that classification notice was omitted, it wasn’t the U.S. intelligence community that took such markings away. Moreover, anybody holding security clearances has already assumed the responsibility for handling it properly.
Now it's reported that Hillary's original private server used to handle the classified information, which was turned over to a Colorado company in 2013, was in storage in New Jersey but contains no data, via WaPo:

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 13, 2015 18 Comments
Carly Fiorina appeared on CNN this week with Jake Tapper who asked her how she could oppose Obamacare as a cancer survivor. Tapper respectfully pointed out that she's a survivor of breast cancer and asked about the provision which requires coverage of pre-existing conditions. Fiorina responded by saying that while she supports coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, Obamacare isn't helping many of those people. Transcript via Frank Camp of the IJ Review:
Fiorina: “I absolutely endorse that goal–I did at the time. But guess what? None of that has worked. Demonstrably, if you look at the results of Obamacare… health insurance premiums are up almost 40% now. That isn’t helping anyone with cancer, I can assure you that–” Tapper: “But the expansion of the pool allows the insurance companies to pay for the people with pre-existing conditions.” Fiorina: “…Who helped write Obamacare? The health insurance companies, and the drug companies. And guess what’s happening? Those companies are consolidating. That’s called crony capitalism.”
Watch the full exchange below:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 13, 2015 26 Comments
The Ted Cruz campaign is holding its own in terms of polls and campaign fundraising; indeed, according to reports, the Cruz campaign raked in $1 million within the first 100 hours following last Thursday's debate.  His #CruzCountry bus tour is also creating a lot of buzz on Twitter, with enthusiastic supporters tweeting that they've just met the "next president." Watch: Winning the presidency is clearly Cruz's goal, and he seems to be playing a long game.
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