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Author: Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

Mary is the resident libertarian. She covers stories in every vertical, but her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.

Mary loves the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, tennis, cats, Oxford comma, Diet Coke, and needlework.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 27, 2016 15 Comments
The Swiss lower parliament has approved a bill to ban women from wearing a burqa in public by a vote of 88 to 87 with 10 abstentions. The commission of representatives will receive the bill, but the members will likely vote against it since the member already "ruled out such a proposal at the beginning of 2016." The Ticino region inspired this bill when the local government banned the burqa. Due to the popularity, people organized a committee to collect signatures "to expand the ban across" Switzerland.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 27, 2016 18 Comments
The fight over the short-term spending bill continues to grow as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) warned that his party will vote against the GOP bill if it doesn't include funding for Flint, MI. He said:
"Democrats have been clear that Congress should not leave Flint and other lead-tainted communities out of any (stopgap spending) negotiation that includes emergency disaster funding," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other top Democrats in a Tuesday morning letter to McConnell. "Our request is simple: include both bipartisan disaster relief packages for consideration in the CR. We urge you to include bipartisan Flint legislation in the CR."

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 26, 2016 7 Comments
A new poll from purple state Virginia has shown that Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson has snagged millennial voters from Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and GOP candidate Donald Trump. Hillary leads the state in a contest with Trump 52-30, but when you add Johnson her favorability with millennials falls to 34% while Johnson takes 27% and Trump plummets to 23%. What does this mean for the Libertarian Party? Does this show that Hillary needs to concentrate more on millennials?

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 26, 2016 7 Comments
Green Party candidate Jill Stein attempted to hold a rally on the Hofstra University campus on Monday, but the police removed her after she completed an interview with MSNBC. Stein had not obtained proper credentials. A 15% polling threshold must be met to qualify for the presidential debate stage. Stein planned to virtually attend the debates just outside of Hofstra and livestream her responses on Facebook and through Twitter.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 26, 2016 12 Comments
It's that time of year when Congress will fight over a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. We all know what will happen. They'll talk tough and then pass something at the last minute and go their merry ways. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has faced criticism from Democrats and members of his own party for the Senate's version of the bill. Some of his fellow GOP members believe the version "doesn't include conservative policy proposals." House conservatives want to do what they can to extend this stopgap bill into January so Congress isn't rushed to pass a full spending bill before Christmas.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 24, 2016 9 Comments
What a shock. The FBI dumped about 200 pages of its interview notes from the Hillary Clinton email investigation on Friday evening. The interviews include top aide Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and even the Romanian hacker Guccifer. Somehow NO ONE, not a single soul, knew that Hillary used a private email server. A few other bombshells include President Barack Obama using a pseudonym in his emails to Hillary, the fact that Hillary did not know how to use a computer, a low key interview with Mills that does not explain why the FBI gave her immunity, and the fact that NO ONE received any training at the State Department on how to handle classified information or email guidelines. I read the 189 pages and below are the parts that stuck out to me.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 23, 2016 0 Comments
The military has requested approval to send 500 more troops to Iraq to assist in missions to retake Mosul from the Islamic State. The White House needs to approve the request, but officials promise the troops would not see combat. Instead they would help the Iraqi military coordinate and prepare a mission. ISIS took over Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in the summer of 2014. Militaries have pushed ISIS out of many areas, but they continue to hold onto Mosul.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 23, 2016 91 Comments
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced on Facebook that he will indeed vote for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in November. https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/779403960692072448

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 23, 2016 8 Comments
Judge James Boasberg announced on Friday that the State Department doesn't have to release all emails contained in the latest batch of Hillary Clinton's emails until after Election Day. He originally gave them a September 23 deadline, but acknowledged today that the department "was struggling to manage the burden of dozens of lawsuits and thousands of requests for records from Mrs. Clinton’s time in office." This batch includes the 15,000 emails the State Department miraculously found after the FBI finished its investigation into Hillary's private email server. Officials originally said the disc contained 30 emails on Benghazi, but let everyone down when they only found one.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 23, 2016 28 Comments
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) revealed that the FBI gave Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills immunity as they investigated her private email server.  This kind of news explains why the FBI recommended the DOJ not prosecute Hillary despite overwhelming evidence:
"No wonder they couldn't prosecute a case," Chaffetz said. "They were handing out immunity deals like candy."

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 23, 2016 5 Comments
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has issued a subpoena to receive disgraced politician Anthony Weiner's cell phone records after a report surfaced that he sexted with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The FBI, NYPD, and U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland in North Carolina have also started an investigation into the allegations. The 15-year-old girl sent The Daily Mail screenshots of their interactions, including rape fantasies and dressing her in school girl outfits. He knew her age, too.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 22, 2016 7 Comments
The House Oversight Committee has demanded that Reddit preserve deleted posts that an IT technician may have written about Hillary Clinton emails. Earlier this week, Reddit users found an archived post that shows someone asking how to "strip out a VIP's" email address from the to/from fields. No one has confirmed the username "stonetear" belongs to Platte Rivers Network employee Paul Combetta, but people have found connections between his name and the username.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 22, 2016 13 Comments
The House Oversight Committee has voted to hold former State Department IT aide Bryan Pogliano after he didn't show up for a hearing last week despite being subpoenaed. Pagliano set up Hillary Clinton's private email server when she served as Secretary of State:
“Subpoenas are not optional,” Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Thursday. “Mr. Pagliano is a crucial fact witness in this committee’s investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to conduct government business.”
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