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Author: Kemberlee Kaye

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Kemberlee Kaye

Kemberlee Kaye is the Senior Contributing Editor of Legal Insurrection, where she has worked since 2014 and is the Director of Operations and Editorial Development for the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She also serves as the Managing Editor for CriticalRace.org, a research project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation.

She has a background working in immigration law, and as a grassroots organizer, digital media strategist, campaign lackey, and muckraker. Over the years Kemberlee has worked with FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, and US Senate re-election campaigns, among others. 

Kemberlee, her daughter, and her son live a lovely taco-filled life in their native Texas.

You can reach her anytime via email at kk @ legalinsurrection.com.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 05, 2015 14 Comments
Thursday night, Fox Business announced the lineup for upcoming Republican presidential debate sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. The debate will take place November 10. The undercard debate has a few new additions -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee. Christie and Huckabee will be joined by Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Not making the cut at all are former New York Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. A minimum of 1% polling average was required for the entry to the undercard debate. The main stage debate will feature the 8 candidates with highest poll ratings.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 05, 2015 17 Comments
If you've been waiting for the first rap ad of the primary season, your wait is finally over. Republican presidential frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson's campaign released a rap ad that will run on stations in some of the country's largest markets. ABC News reports:
Dr. Carson is launching a new 60-second urban radio advertisement scheduled to air Friday in eight markets. His new $150,000 radio ad buy, called “Freedom,” will air for two weeks in Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas. The ad, specifically targeting young black voters, uses rapper Aspiring Mogul and is interspersed with portions of Carson’s stump speech throughout the 60-second ad.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 04, 2015 35 Comments
"For the children" unless using children as profane props helps your cause, in which case, eff it. Or at least that seems to be the case with a presumably anti-Trump PAC, Deport Racism. Promoting their contest which offers a cash prize to any audience member who successfully disrupts Trump's upcoming Saturday Night Live appearance by shouting "deport racism" or calling Trump a racist, Deport Racism used children to share, a "few words of their own" with The Donald. Mainly, "f*ck you, racist F*ck!" WARNING: Language, obvs.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 04, 2015 5 Comments
The city of Houston is no longer threatening to seize two decades-old fifth ward churches via eminent domain. From our August report:
Two churches nestled in what used to be one of Houston’s roughest neighborhoods are fighting back against the city. The Latter Day Deliverance Revival Center was established in the fifth ward in 1965 by Bishop Roy Lee Kossie. A few years later, Pastor Quinton Smith began pastoring at the Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, also in the fifth ward. Both churches have grown and have had a positive impact on their community in each year since their establishment. Building a youth ministry center, a church-run food bank, and creating outreach programs for gang members, drug addicts, and alcoholics, the churches continue their work to transform the fifth ward. “When we moved in to this area, it was considered the highest crime rate area in the city of Houston. People shot first and asked questions later. But we loved these people. We loved this community. We knew this was exactly where we needed to be,” said Kossie. The fifth ward is located just outside of downtown. Property values in the area have skyrocketed and continue to climb. The City of Houston offered to purchase the churches. When the churches refused, the city came back with threats of using eminent domain to acquire the property as part of an urban development plan.
That "urban development plan" called for using the land to build a library and 63 units of public housing.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 03, 2015 43 Comments
In this particular tale of media hit job turned embarrassment, we have what might be one of the best public displays of gun ignorance presented as fact I've ever seen. The only things missing are a barrel shroud and a couple rounds of rubber bullets. Gizmodo reporter Wes Siler thought he'd pegged Republican Presidential Candidate Senator Ted Cruz as a gun safety hypocrite. Last weekend, the Junior Senator from the Lone Star State went pheasant hunting. Note the unloaded, break-action shotgun resting on Cruz's shoulder.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 02, 2015 21 Comments
Tone deaf? How does it work? This. This is how it works. Monday, the RNC sent a round of fundraising emails addressed from failed Presidential Candidate, Senator McCain. Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 1.50.04 PM

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 02, 2015 13 Comments
Monday afternoon, President Obama signed a two-year budget deal saying it was, "a signal of how Washington should work." Avoiding an election-year budget showdown, the bill suspends the debt limit until March of 2017 and brings the national debt total to a staggering $20 trillion. According to USA Today:
Some House Republicans had proposed the former debt limit — which was set to expire Tuesday — to leverage more spending cuts from the administration. Outgoing House speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, put together a plan to avoid breaching the debt limit, saying that doing so would threaten the nation's credit rating. The bill sets the federal budget for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, with an end to spending caps that had affected both national defense and domestic programs. "By locking in two years of funding," Obama said, "it should finally free us from the cycle of shutdown threats and last-minute fixes. It allows us to, therefore, plan for the future."
The two-year budget deal was passed by the Senate Friday with a vote of 64-35. All 35 dissenting votes were Republican. Several Senate Republicans vocally opposed the budget deal which essentially robs the Social Security Trust Fund of about $150 billion. Senator Lee referred to the bill as, "the last gasping breath of a disgraced bipartisan Beltway establishment on the verge of collapse."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 02, 2015 4 Comments
Last we reported, eight non-profit co-ops created by the Affordable Care Act announced they were closing. Two weeks later, that number is now eleven. State and federal regulators have suspended Arizona's Meritus Health Partners and Meritus Health Mutual Partners. Like the ten non-profit tax-payer funded co-op closures before, regulators cited financial troubles as the reason for the co-op closure. The Washington Examiner reported:
State regulators have suspended the company that operates as Meritus Health Partners and Meritus Health Mutual Partners to ability to sell or renew plans to Obamacare customers for 2016. The federal government kicked the co-op out from offering plans on the Obamacare marketplaces. The Arizona Department of Insurance had issued an order of supervision against the company, requiring that the insurer no longer offer plans after the end of the year.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 30, 2015 22 Comments
When it comes to relatability, young voters peg Senator Rubio as the winner. A Fusion-hosted panel of younger voters during the third Republican Presidential debate unanimously agreed Marco Rubio was the most relatable.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 30, 2015 24 Comments
Early Friday afternoon, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus sent a nastygram to NBC News, suspending the Republican Party's partnership with the network. After the third Republican presidential debate, which was hosted by CNBC, Priebus said he was "ashamed" of how the network handled the event.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 29, 2015 10 Comments
I think it's safe to say we've reached peak primary with this one. Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused fellow candidate Ben Carson of changing his position on abortion.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 28, 2015 16 Comments
Consumers living in the country's fourth largest city will no longer be able to purchase an individual PPO. Market changes sparked by implantation of Obamacare are putting the squeeze on the self-employed and those who purchase health insurance outside of a large employer sponsored PPO. The Lone Star State's largest PPO provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas announced earlier this month that beginning in 2016, the would no longer offer individual PPO plans, though some enrolled in certain plans in 2010 might be grandfathered in. Just yesterday, I received a notification from my health insurance provider that my plan, an HMO, would be cancelled.
Needing a break from the computer screen, I wandered out to the mailbox to find an “OPEN IMMEDIATELY, THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH” envelope from my health insurance provider, tucked between the junk mail and a cooking magazine. Sure enough, it was a cancellation notice. Now, I too am a victim of Obamacare’s reign of insurance premium of terror. Not to worry though. I can pay 20% more for less coverage and a deductible increase from $500 to $3250. But my story is small potatoes compared to many families who are forced to watch in horror as their health insurance premiums triple and their deductibles multiply faster than rabbits. The Obama administration acknowledged Monday that consumers would see health insurance premium increases across the board in 2016. They claim the average premium increases clocks in at 7.5%, though I have no idea where they’re getting these numbers. Don’t want to pay more? Then go back to the exchanges and shop around. You might pay less, but you’ll also have fewer benefits and higher deductibles.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 28, 2015 16 Comments
Tonight, GOP Presidential contenders will duke it out on stage for the third time. How are the candidates preparing for this evening's verbal sparring?

Marco Rubio is checking stats.

Rand Paul is practicing "Yo Momma" jokes.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 28, 2015 5 Comments
For years, we have heard that that 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 college women are victims of rape or sexual assault. The studies behind the statistic tended to be agenda-driven and unscientific, but now according to hundreds of news stories, there’s a new, more comprehensive survey that confirms epidemic levels of sexual predation on campus. Could these researchers be right?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 27, 2015 49 Comments
The air is crisp, the leaves are donning their autumnal dress, and the Hill is bracing for it's annual budget fight. According to Speaker Boehner, "there's no reason to vote against it."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 27, 2015 20 Comments
I started writing this post before I checked the mail today. Needing a break from the computer screen, I wandered out to the mailbox to find an "OPEN IMMEDIATELY, THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH" envelope from my health insurance provider, tucked between the junk mail and a cooking magazine. Sure enough, it was a cancellation notice. Now, I too am a victim of Obamacare's reign of insurance premium of terror. Not to worry though. I can pay 20% more for less coverage and a deductible increase from $500 to $3250. tumblr_li8gj9l5EW1qzf312.gif~c200 But my story is small potatoes compared to many families who are forced to watch in horror as their health insurance premiums triple and their deductibles multiply faster than rabbits.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 32 Comments
Discussing Paul Ryan's bid for Speaker of the House Monday, Melissa Harris-Perry made an unusual claim about the term, "hard worker." Alfonso Aguilar, Director of the conservative organization American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership said:
"But let's be fair. If there's somebody who is a hard worker when he goes to Washington, it's Paul Ryan. He not only works with Republicans but with Democrats. You know very well that I work on immigration issues, trying to get Republicans to support immigration reform. Paul Ryan is somebody who has supported immigration reform, has worked with somebody like Luis Gutierrez. Luis Gutierrez is very respectful, speaks highly of Paul Ryan, this is somebody who is trying to govern.
At which point Harris-Perry interrupted Aguilar and then proceeded to wander down a completely unhinged tangent about slavery.
"Alfonso, I feel you. But I just want to pause on one thing, because I don't disagree with you that I actually think Mr. Ryan is a great choice for this roll. I want us to be super careful when we use the language "hard worker," because, I actually keep an image of folks working in the cotton fields on my office wall because it is a reminder of what hard work looks like. So I feel you that he's a hard worker, I do, but in the context of relative privilege... and I just want to point out that when you talk about work-life balance and being a hard worker, the moms who are working, who don't have health care, we don't call them hard workers, we call them failures, we call them people who are sucking off the system."
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