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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.

Regardless of what your thoughts might be on Catholicism, the Pope, or politics, I believe we can all agree that the decision to view everything through a political lens is a great way to miss some of life's best offerings. This has never been more apparent to me than it is today. This morning I watched the fanfare around Pope Francis' historic visit to the US. You can watch Pope Francis' remarks here. They're brief, less than ten minutes. https://youtu.be/nAJiyDvCbyw

No, this is not a question from a CNN GOP presidential debate. Former Presidential Candidate Herman Cain joined Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Tuesday evening. The subject? Carly Fiorina's foreign policy speech at The Citadel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvr8_a-FZ2U&feature=youtu.be&t=2m4s

Ohio Governor John Kasich was caught on camera showing off his dance moves on Mackinac Island, Michigan Saturday night. Or at least we're told this is supposed to count as dancing: The video was posted by American Bridge, a progressive SuperPAC.

Monday Judicial Watch released 50 new pages of emails from top Hillary Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. Released as a result a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit instigated by Judicial Watch, the emails are from the clintonemail.com server and were penned during Former Secretary Clinton's tenure at the Department of State. To be clear, the emails are not part of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's home-brewed email server. They were found in the Department of State's records, but contain an address on the clintonemail.com domain. Judicial Watch asserts the State Department is intentionally delaying release of emails recently submitted by Abedin. As Judicial Watch notes, the emails show Clinton was not the only one using her non-secured server.

A heated discussion in Japan's upper house erupted into a brawl last week. Breaking with their pacifist past, for the first time since World War II Japan voted to allow its military to fight on foreign soil.

The inner-party tension over the Democratic primary debate schedule boiled over at a New Hampshire Democratic Party convention Saturday. According to the Washington Post, more than 4,000 delegates and guests were at the event. When Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped up to speak, convention goers began chanting, "we want debates!"

For everything that might be wrong with large media outlets, there's no escaping the control they wield over election cycles. They possess the power to crush White House dreams or make them a reality. Which is part of why headlines like this are hilarious: media influence elections politico headline donald trump decline scott walker Yesterday, we discussed a report released by the Media Research Center that revealed CNN devoted a whopping 78% of its GOP primary coverage to Donald Trump. The skewed timeshare was reflected in the network's GOP debate held Wednesday, the first 45 minutes of which were questions about their favorite subject -- Donald Trump. The end game? Ratings. And it worked for CNN. The cycle is relatively simple: how the media churns and burns through candidates

Thrust into the national spotlight thanks to Wednesday night's GOP presidential debate, everything about Carly Fiorina is under the media's microscope. Much has been said about Fiorina's job record, particularly her tenure at Hewlett-Packard. Fiorina was fired from HP in 2005, a fact her opponents love to mention. The Washington Post reported:
Fiorina got a taste of that new scrutiny before the debate had even ended Wednesday night. When her business record came under attack during the event, there was a spike in Google searches for “Carly Fiorina fired” and “Carly Fiorina fired why.” Fact-checkers quickly challenged her familiar assertions that, under her leadership, HP “doubled the size of the company, we quadrupled its top-line growth rate, we quadrupled its cash flow, we tripled its rate of innovation.” The main force driving the higher numbers was Fiorina’s decision in 2001 to merge HP with rival company Compaq. It was a controversial move — one that Dell founder Michael Dell dubbed “the dumbest deal of the decade” — and helped lead to her ouster. There are also certain to be reminders of the 30,000 layoffs that occurred at HP on her watch. But none of this comes as a surprise to Fiorina, who clearly has been preparing for the onslaught and faced similar fire when she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2010 against incumbent Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). During the debate, Trump taunted her: “I only say this — she can’t run any of my companies. That I can tell you.” Her rejoinder was to bring up the four times that Trump’s companies filed for bankruptcy: “You ran up mountains of debt, as well as losses, using other people’s money.”
As Justin Fox of Bloomberg Politics points out, that Fiorina wasn't the best CEO in corporate history is simply fact. But how much of what happened at HP was Fiorina and how much was reflective of the industry at the time?

A Clinton campaign town hall event in Concord, New Hampshire held Thursday night was virtually empty. Fox News' Ed Henry attended the event and tweeted photos that showed what appeared to be more people on the stage than in attendance.

Those tuned in to Wednesday night's GOP debate hosted by CNN and Salem Media (though mostly CNN) were left wondering what happened to Scott Walker. To be fair, it's a difficult, if not impossible task providing equal airtime to eleven people in any given debate setting. CNN chose to lead with questions about what other contenders thought of Donald Trump. Time that should have been used testing candidates on policy knowledge and prodding their hypothetical handling of various scenarios, was spent goading them into attacking either Trump or one another. A report released by the Media Research Center prior to Wednesday's debate provides an explanation for CNN's unusual line of questioning: CNN loves them some Trump. The MRC analyzed CNN's coverage of the Republican presidential primary and found that 78% of that total coverage was spent on Donald Trump. 7-8-%.

Happy Constitutions Day! Today marks the day our illustrious government contract was signed and later adopted, effectively nullifying the Articles of Confederation. To wish our Constitution a proper happy birthday, here's Senator Cruz:

Not only are Hillary's favorability ratings tanking, but her email woes don't appear to be dissipating anytime soon. Here's the latest:

"Email" defines Hillary Clinton

A Gallup word cloud published Wednesday is probably not what Mrs. Clinton was hoping to see.
Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has offered specific positions on a variety of issues while campaigning. But when Gallup recently asked Americans to say what they recall reading or hearing about her, one word -- "email" -- drowned out everything else.
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Congressman McClintock represents California's fourth district. Wednesday, he announced he was resigning from the House Freedom Caucus. Formed earlier this year, the HFC hoped to pull the House Republican Caucus further to the right. There principles were simple. "First, rank-and-file Republicans must pressure leadership to enact a more conservative agenda. And second, this pressure should never involve frantic scurrying on the House floor," wrote NRO's Joel Gehrke in January.
As a caucus devoted to moving leadership’s agenda to the right, the group has a chance to take over the traditional role of the Republican Study Committee, which many lawmakers believe has strayed from its founding mission as an organization designed to pressure moderate GOP leaders to adopt more conservative positions. National Journal first reported that such a group was forming.
Less than a year after it began, the HFC has already lost one of its 30 members. Rep. McClintock's resignation was brutal. "I believe the tactics the HFC has employed have repeatedly undermined the House’s ability to advance them," he wrote.

Howdy and thanks so much for joining us tonight! This is the second of two debate posts this evening. First of all, cable or no cable, you can watch the debate if you have an internet connection. CNN is streaming both debates for free, but it will only work if you are in the United States:
If you don't have cable, you'll still be able to watch CNN's Republican primary debate on Wednesday night, because the network is live streaming it for free on the web. The live stream will be front and center on CNN.com between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET. It'll also be available through the news organization's apps and the CNNgo web site.
In tonight's main stage debate, we have:
  • Scott Walker
  • Carly Fiorina
  • Jeb Bush
  • Donald Trump
  • Chris Christie
  • Ben Carson
  • Ted Cruz
  • Rand Paul
  • Mike Huckabee
  • John Kasich

Watch real time debate reaction:

To providing a wide array of real time reactions, we've included a few different Twitter feeds for your entertainment. You'll find those beneath.

Howdy and thanks so much for joining us tonight! This is the first of two debate posts this evening. First of all, cable or no cable, you can watch the debate if you have an internet connection. CNN is streaming both debates for free, but it will only work if you are in the United States:
If you don't have cable, you'll still be able to watch CNN's Republican primary debate on Wednesday night, because the network is live streaming it for free on the web. The livestream will be front and center on CNN.com between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET. It'll also be available through the news organization's apps and the CNNgo web site.
In tonight's early debate, we have:
  • Bobby Jindal
  • Rick Santorum
  • Lindsey Graham
  • George Pataki.

Watch real time debate reaction:

To providing a wide array of real time reactions, we've included a few different Twitter feeds for your entertainment. You'll find those beneath.

Join the conversation:

But here's the fun part. We want to hear from YOU. Questions, observations, thoughts, ideas? Share them in the comments section beneath. Amy and I will address them directly on the blog. Please keep them civil, appropriate, and debate-focused. We can't promise we will get to every single one, but we will do our best. Are you ready? Let the games begin! Post-debate UPDATE by WAJ: Here are my tweets and retweets of the night and take on the "result": https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/644297638247055360

Naturally, the government has to ruin everything, including Little Free Libraries. You may have seen one of these little bird house turned mini-libraries in your neighborhood. They're a lovely idea. Simple, no fuss, and quite fun. Donate a book, borrow a book. Nothing to sign, no due date, no late fees, just common courtesy. Conor Freidersdorf of The Atlantic explored the ridiculous trend of "shutting down" unregulated community book sharing. In Kansas, residents were told to remove the library at peril of fine:
The Leawood City Council said it had received a couple of complaints about Spencer Collins' Little Free Library. They dubbed it an "illegal detached structure" and told the Collins' they would face a fine if they did not remove the Little Free Library from their yard by June 19.
Evidently, Los Angeles and Shreveport, Louisiana are hotbeds of illicit literary lending activity.

Lost but not totally forgotten in the EmailGate debacle is the Clinton family's questionable relationships with foreign powers. In particular, foreign powers whose interests are detrimental to the national security of the United States. Via investigation into the Clinton Foundation, some of these unsavory alliances have been unearthed for public viewing. A sampling: There was the time a Colombian oil company magically received a trade agreement Mrs. Clinton opposed while running for president in 2008. The trade agreement was reached immediately following a generous donation to the Clinton Foundation. Of course this happened while Mrs. Clinton was Secretary of State. Also happening while Mrs. Clinton was "Secretary Clinton" -- that whole incestuous, Russian uranium deal:
The NYT’s latest exposé into the sordid world of the Clinton family suggests a direct connection between the Clinton Foundation, Russian donations (that were not publicly disclosed), and the Russian acquisition of Uranium One. The events transpired while Mrs. Clinton was serving as Secretary of State.
Oh yes, and how can we forget the weapons deal with the Saudis: