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Posted by Amy Miller on June 16, 2015 48 Comments
Cue the confetti cannon... Donald Trump is running for president. Today during a rally at Trump Tower in New York City, Trump became the 2,347th Republican to declare candidiacy in the 2016 primary. Via ABC News:
"We are going to make our country great again," Trump, who turned 69 on Saturday, declared. He added, "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created." In 2012, Trump launched a Presidential exploratory committee and visited key battleground states before bowing out in May 2011. This time though, Trump says he’s in it for the long haul; he plans to step away from the day to day management of The Trump Organization, and hand the reigns over to his children: Ivanka, Donald Jr, and Eric. He has also chosen to step aside from his hit reality show, “The Apprentice." "They all said, a lot of the pundits on television, well, Donald will never run, and one of the main reasons is he's private and he's probably not as successful as everybody thinks," said Trump, who has never held public office before. "So I said to myself, you know, nobody is ever going to know unless I run because I'm really proud of my success."
Video via TMZ (who I'm assuming is excited for the sheer amount of content they're about to encounter):

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Posted by Amy Miller on June 16, 2015 38 Comments
This morning, presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina went were many Republicans fear to go, and even fewer venture in hopes of making strides with new demographics---the set of The View. I think she may have gained ground. Judging from my own experiences and conversations, I'm comfortable with saying that even conservative women like the idea of a woman running for president. It has nothing to do with post-modern feminism, or promoting candidates based on gender, or secret man-hate---it's about not feeling the need to act the contrarian over actual progress. If she did make strides during this interview, she earned them. Out of the gate, the hosts wanted to know about her lack of political experience, and she gave a great answer:
"I understand how the economy works, I understand how the world works, I understand how bureaucracies work, which is what our government's become, I understand technology, which is kind of important now, and I understand leadership. I think this election's gonna be about leadership."
Watch the rest (h/t Tom Szold, National Political Director of Carly for America:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 16, 2015 14 Comments
A new Rassumussen poll released last week suggests Americans prefer living in neighborhoods with where they're allowed to arm themselves over gun-free locals. According to Rasmussen:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of Likely U.S. Voters would feel safer living in a neighborhood where nobody was allowed to own a gun over one where they could have a gun for their own protection. Sixty-eight percent (68%) would feel safer in a neighborhood where guns are allowed, while 10% are not sure.
The survey was conducted over a group of 977 likely voters. The results are consistent with other polling conducted by Rasmussen.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 16, 2015 12 Comments
The race for 2016 has shifted the focus of the media and many Americans away from the IRS scandal, but a new development in the story has come to light. Over 6,000 Lois Lerner emails have been found but the IRS is stalling on sharing them. You'll never guess why. Gerri Willis of the FOX Business Network reports:
IRS Finds 6,400 Lois Lerner Emails But Won't Hand Em Over The Internal Revenue Service may have found 6,400 emails from Lois Lerner, who oversaw the tax agency’s Exempt Organizations Unit, but the government agency has no plans to share. Attorneys from the Department of Justice representing the IRS say the emails won’t be shared because the service is making sure that none of them are duplicates. Lerner is at the center of a scandal in which the tax agency denied special tax status to conservative groups. Her emails have been sought by members of Congress and conservative groups alike. One of those groups, Judicial Watch, has been seeking emails as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed two years ago. Originally, the IRS said the email trail was permanently lost because the computer drive that contained it crashed. However, the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration or TIGTA, was able to retrieve 6,400 emails which it has subsequently sent to the agency. It is these emails that the IRS wants to check for duplicates.
Watch the video report below.

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.

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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.
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