Day: January 13, 2019

Tennessee Voters Make Good on Donald Trump Call to Action on Border Standoff

Chris Butler

Tennessee Republican Congressman Phil Roe reportedly said people are calling his office in record numbers to discuss the federal government shutdown and the proposed wall along the U.S. and Mexican border President Donald Trump wants. As the Little Rock-based KARK TV station reported this week, Trump urged Americans to contact their representatives in Washington, D.C. and tell them they support his fight for a border wall. The station contacted congressmen and U.S. senators from Arkansas and Tennessee to gauge whether Trump’s call to action was having an effect. Roe, the station went on to say, supports the proposed wall, especially after “he saw the need firsthand during a trip to the border last summer.” “We have drug introduction. We have sexual trafficking. We have human trafficking,” KARK quoted Roe as saying. Arkansas Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton said his office was “jam-packed” with calls also, but that most of the people calling wanted to talk about the government shutdown. The station also interviewed U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis. Cohen told the station very few people were calling his office and that those who did complained about the government shutdown. Last week Vice President Mike Pence called into the Rush Limbaugh…

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Dr. Carol M. Swain Commentary: White Officer’s Defense is Not Comparable to Nuremberg

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by Dr. Carol M. Swain   How we talk about race does matter: Leaders have a responsibility to avoid fanning the flames of racism for political advantage, such as what’s happening in Nashville, Tennessee, where a familiar national story is repeating itself. You know the storyline by now: A white police officer shoots and kills a black man who is running away from the officer—it’s a multiple tragedy on several fronts. The national media then goes overboard in reporting the story, as in this case with the likes of Newsweek and The New York Times among those amping up coverage of the Nashville shooting. It’s a tragedy for the deceased, Daniel Hambrick, 25, and his family, which going forward is denied his presence and fellowship. It’s a tragedy for the Nashville community and for America as a whole, as well as for Andrew Delke, the 25-year-old police officer who fired the fatal shots. It’s also a tragedy for the city and nation when Glenn Funk, the prosecutor in the case, decided to use incendiary and hyperbolic language at a preliminary hearing about whether criminal charges against the officer will advance. Not hesitant to demonstrate his foolishness, Funk argued that Delke’s…

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U.S. Rep. Mark Green Discusses First Two Weeks in Congress, Chides Democrats for Shutdown and Failure to Protect Border

Jason M. Reynolds

Freshman U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) provided an update on his first two weeks in Congress in a Facebook video Saturday. The video is available here on Facebook. The transcript follows. “It has been emotional to say the least,” Green said. “I raised my hand and I took the oath – the same oath that I took at West Point when I was 17 years old. I just thank the people of the Seventh Congressional District who gave me the opportunity to once again serve our great nation. “It’s been a challenging two weeks. The government is still shut down. We have federal employees that aren’t getting paid because the Democrats won’t give us 5.7 billion dollars to protect our southern border. Money that they voted on before in the past. Money that they’ve all been quoted saying was needed in the past. And they’re just ignoring the human suffering in our country from things like heroin addiction and overdose and death, the murders. Lindsey Graham  said it the other day – at least our federal employees will get back pay, but the wife of Officer Singh will not get her husband back. “It’s a national crisis. We’ve got…

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Report Highlights the Crazy Lengths Hackers Took to Hack US Utilities

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by Chris White   Russian hackers went to shocking and elaborate lengths to wriggle their way into the United States’ electrical grid, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday that detailed a slew of hacking techniques. Hackers targeted government contractors connected to a public utility company in Oregon to access the country’s electric grid, the report notes. Some of the contractors were unaware they were victimized due to the exotic tactics hackers used to disguise their intentions. The scheme’s success is owed mostly to how it exploited trusted business relationships using impersonation and trickery. Hackers planted malware on sites utility engineers frequently visit and sent phony résumés with tainted attachments. After getting credentials, they then slipped through portals and gained access to computer systems that monitor and control electricity flows. WSJ’s report identified government contractors such as Commercial Contractors in Washington, and Carlson Testing in Oregon, among other big-name public utilities who were targeted in 2017. One of the cite’s contractors visited cleaned-out malicious malware from its domains in 2016 only to see hackers return and infect the system again. Hackers seized on unsuspecting visitors and other trade websites, hoping to lure engineers and penetrate the companies where they…

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Republican Senators Introduce Legislation That Would ‘Permanently Prevent’ Government Shutdowns

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by Henry Rodgers   A group of Republican Senators introduced legislation Friday that would permanently prevent the federal government from ever shutting down. Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, Montana Sen. Steve Daines, Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced the legislation – the “End Government Shutdowns Act,” which will make it so the federal government can never shutdown. This comes as the government has been partially shutdown for 21 days. Republican members of Congress have lobbied members of Congress to reach an agreement on a bill that would fund the government and protect the border. “It’s disappointing that both sides didn’t resolve this matter weeks ago. Shutdowns inevitably costs taxpayers more money once the government reopens. I hope that both parties come together and reach an agreement that brings a resolution to this issue as quickly as possible,” Portman said in a statement. “Moving forward, we should end government shutdowns for good. This bipartisan legislation will accomplish that goal, providing lawmakers with more time to reach a responsible resolution to budget negotiations, giving federal workers and…

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Daines Introduces Bill Withholding Pay from Congressmen During Government Shutdowns, Others Join

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by Henry Rodgers   Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines introduced a bill on the Senate floor Thursday that would withhold the pay of members of Congress during future government shutdowns. Daines’s introduction of the bill, sponsored by Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, comes hours after Daines announced he sent a letter requesting the secretary of the U.S. Senate withhold his pay during the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government. “Members of Congress are sent to Washington, D.C., to represent the great people of their state and keep the federal government open, working and funded. So it’s simple. If they can’t do that, they shouldn’t get paid. No work, no pay,” Daines told The Daily Caller News Foundation after the bill was introduced. The “No Work, No Pay Act,” introduced by Daines, would make it so members of Congress would not be paid if they cannot keep the government funded. His move to not accept pay was followed by many of his colleagues, such as Cornyn, who said he was excited to join Daines in co-sponsoring the bill. He echoed Daines’s message that members of Congress should not be paid while government agencies are shut down. Pleased to join my…

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US Granted Over 5,000 Requests to Bring in Child Brides From Foreign Nationals

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by Joshua Gill   The U.S. approved more than 5,000 requests by men to bring child or adolescent brides into the country over the past decade, enabling forced child marriages. U.S. immigration authorities approved 5,556 requests from older men to bring child or adolescent wives to the U.S., and approved 2,926 requests from young girls to bring their older husbands to the U.S. between the budget years of 2007 and 2017. The data also revealed 4,749 minor spouses or fiancees had received U.S. green cards in that time period. The highest percentage of requests came from Middle Eastern nationals, with the majority of requests coming from Mexico, followed by Pakistan, Jordan, the Dominican Republic and Yemen. The requests and their approvals were apparently legal, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press, due to the fact that the Immigration and Nationality Act does not limit the age of spouses. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also approves or denies requests based on whether the marriage is legal in the home country and the state of the applicant. Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the approvals highlight a legal loophole in which, contrary to…

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Commentary: Establishment Republicans Want the Pro-Life Movement Dead

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by Deion A. Kathawa   Just a few days before Christmas, departing Ohio Governor John Kasich decided to play a disappointing Santa and put a massive lump of coal in the pro-life movement’s stocking. He vetoed a bill that would have made it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Mercifully, he did at least sign a second bill which bans the most common second-trimester abortion procedure, the dilation and evacuation—“D&E”—also called a “dismemberment” abortion, during which a fetus is ripped apart and extracted piece by piece. Is any political constituency as regularly swindled and abused as are pro-lifers? From their promises to defund Planned Parenthood to their assurances that Roe v. Wade is very soon to be on the chopping block, establishment Republicans are masters at talking a big game but doing nothing at all to advance the right to life of the unborn. Too many Republican politicians either are cynical grifters or outright liars who don’t care a whit about the 14th Amendment’s promise of “equal protection of the laws” to all persons or the Declaration’s teaching that “all men are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator with…

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Commentary: Better Ways to Fight Extremism in Syria Than Endless War

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by Austin Mulka   Yesterday I posted a status in unequivocal support of President Trump’s recent decision to pull out of Syria. The post elicited the abhorrent wails of the president’s purported supporters, one of whom denounced me as a supporter of “child killers.” As baseless as the claim was, empathizing with an opponent’s argument is the most efficient means of coming to mutual understandings of disagreement. Ultimately, those in opposition to pulling out of Syria firmly believe that military intervention is a principled position against the murder of children. As such, any opposition to this position, such as my own, must indicate its reciprocal support. Insofar as I am unequivocally against the murder of children, I hope to explain why military intervention is not the most effective means of fighting the Islamic regime and three alternatives to war with proven effectiveness. Journalism First and foremost, I would like to state that I am not a supporter of the Islamic regime in Syria. In The Home That was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, Arab-American journalist Alia Malek details her first-hand accounts of horrendous acts and grievances by the Syrian regime. Having lived in both Syria and the United States,…

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Group Behind Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’ Wields Influence in Washington

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by Jason Hopkins   A recent profile identified several progressive institutions funding the Sunrise Movement, a nascent environmentalist organization that is quickly wielding influence in Washington, D.C. Founded in April 2017, the Sunrise Movement is a newcomer among the many green organizations that have already been established for generations. However, the youth-led climate group quickly garnered national attention and high-dollar donations from across the country. Between its 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) entities, the group was able to raise just shy of $1 million during 2018 — and members intend to raise $2.5 million in 2019. Despite growing attention from the media, it’s been difficult to pinpoint exactly who is funding the Sunrise Movement. The group is not legally required to disclose its donors. However, a recent report from Inside Philanthropy, an outlet focused on philanthropic groups and their big donors, sheds some light. The Rockefeller Fund, the Wallace Global Fund and the Winslow Foundation are core funders of Sunrise Movement. The three groups have continued to finance a large portion of Sunrise’s operations, with institutional funders making up 55 percent of the group’s 2018 budget. Thirty-five percent of its budget came from individual donors, and the rest came from non-profit partners.…

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Florida’s DeSantis Suspends Sheriff After Poor Response to Parkland Shooting

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by Neetu Chandak   Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel on Friday after his poor response to the Parkland high school shooting Feb. 14, 2018. Effective immediately, I am officially suspending Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his repeated failures, incompetence and neglect of duty. https://t.co/tkHzxTHhjH — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 11, 2019 “Effective immediately, I am officially suspending Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his repeated failures, incompetence and neglect of duty,” DeSantis tweeted Friday. Israel reportedly told his officers he was suspended, but DeSantis had not announced any such decision, The Daily Caller previously reported. Calls to suspend the sheriff were immediate after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission released a report detailing the failures that happened the day of the shooting. Revelations included police not going after suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz in a timely manner and chaotic radio communication, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Seventeen people died on the day of the massacre. – – – Neetu Chandak is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Neetu on Twitter. Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.                …

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FBI Moved ‘Quickly’ to Spy on Carter Page For ‘Operational Reasons,’ FBI Lawyer Testified

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by Chuck Ross   FBI officials were frustrated with the Justice Department in the run-up to the 2016 election over the slow pace in granting a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, a former FBI lawyer told Congress in 2018. Lisa Page, who served as general counsel to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, told lawmakers in a closed-door setting in July 2018 that the FBI wanted to “quickly” obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Carter Page for “operational reasons.” “There was an operational reason that we were pushing to get the FISA up, which I am not at liberty to discuss,” she told lawmakers, according to The Epoch Times, which obtained a leaked transcript of Lisa Page’s testimony. “We had an operational reason that we wanted to get this thing up quickly with respect to the subject himself,” she said. But the FBI was stymied to some degree by the Justice Department, Lisa Page told Congress. The testimony raises further questions about the FBI’s surveillance efforts against Carter Page. Republicans have accused the FBI and Justice Department of misleading the federal judges who oversee the FISA process by relying heavily on the…

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Klobuchar Gears Up For Another Confirmation Battle As Presidential Rumors Swirl

Anthony Gockowski

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued a statement Wednesday night after she and her Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee were apparently denied meetings with President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr. Barr is set to testify before the committee this week, but it is already shaping up to be another controversial nomination process. Klobuchar says she has concerns about an unsolicited memo Barr sent to the Justice Department in June 2018 in which he raised doubts about the scope of Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction. Apart from whether Mueller [has] a strong enough factual basis for doing so, Mueller’s obstruction theory is fatally misconceived,” Barr wrote. Klobuchar told Rolling Stone that she has additional concerns with Barr’s alleged failure to submit all of his ethics reports to the Senate Judiciary Committee. When she and her colleagues sought to meet with Barr to discuss these concerns, Klobuchar claims they were brushed off. “I tried (as did Blumenthal) to get meeting w/AG nominee Barr and was told he couldn’t meet until after hearing. The reason given? The shutdown. Yet shutdown didn’t stop him from other…

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275,000 Inactive Voters in Ohio Sent ‘Last Chance’ Notice to Confirm Eligibility Before Being Purged

Andrew Shirley

This week, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has triggered one of the most consequential and controversial “voter integrity” measures in the country. 275,000 inactive voters, registered in Ohio, have been sent “last chance” letters, informing them that if they do not confirm their current address and voting status, they will be purged from the voter rolls. Voters are considered inactive if they have not participated in two consecutive elections. They are then sent a series of letters, requesting that they up update their addresses. Should they fail to respond, they are then ruled inactive. In effect, an individual would have to not vote and ignore every letter sent over the course of almost half a decade to be ruled inactive. Eighteen other states use a similar practice. However, the process was challenged in the United States Supreme Court by the A. Philip Randolph Institute (Husted v. Randolph Institute). They alleged that the real purpose of these measures is to deny voting rights to racial minorities and the poor who are disproportionately affected by the measure. In a 5-4 decision on June 11, 2018, the court upheld the practice. In spite of this, progressives still alleged the mechanism is a violation of civil rights…

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Michigan Governor Issues Executive Directive to Combat ‘Gender Wage Gap’

Anthony Gockowski

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) issued an executive directive Tuesday aimed at closing the “gender wage-gap” within state government agencies. Executive Directive 2019-10 prohibits state agencies from inquiring “about a job applicant’s current or previous salaries unless and until the department or agency first makes a conditional offer of employment,” and further forbids searching “public records databases to ascertain an applicant’s current or previous salary.” According to Whitmer, the practice of obtaining an applicant’s salary history “can inappropriately perpetuate the gender wage gap by enabling prospective employers to offer lower salaries to women than they otherwise would.” The directive also requires state agencies to “take reasonable measures to avoid inadvertently discovering salary history while gathering other information about an applicant.” If salary information is “unintentionally discovered,” it “must not be used by the department or agency in an employment decision.” Whitmer tasks the “Equity and Inclusion Officer” for each state office with engaging in “proactive efforts to educate employees of the department or agency about the requirements of this directive.” “Too often, the women of Michigan have been held back by an economy and a state government that does not fully treat them as equals,” the directive states. “Women still struggle…

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Ilhan Omar Declares Trump Presidency a ‘National Emergency’ in Twitter Tirade Against the Wall

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) fired off dozens of tweets this week in response to President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to the nation, nearly outpacing the president himself in tweets about the southern border wall. Before Trump’s Oval Office address even began, Omar was exasperated with the fact that Trump would receive “free airtime for propaganda on the ‘humanitarian and national security crisis’ at the border.” “Two children died in ICE custody last month after 10+ years with no such deaths. There’s blood on your hands,” Omar tweeted Tuesday. Tonight, while #Trump gets free airtime for propaganda on the "humanitarian & national security crisis" at the border, CHILDREN sit in cold cages in inhumane conditions. Two children died in ICE custody last month after 10+ years with no such deaths. There's blood on your hands. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 8, 2019 “We are literally watching a manufactured crisis, designed to divert attention from this criminal and dysfunctional administration. Stay woke America, Individual-1 is not one to sleep on,” she later wrote. Notably, Individual 1 was a code-name used by federal prosecutors in the charges brought against Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, and it was later made clear that Trump and…

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Tennessee Democrats Re-Elect Far Left Mary Mancini As State Party Chair, Republicans Cheer

Jason M. Reynolds

Tennessee Democratic Party State Chair Mary Mancini won another two year term Saturday as the party’s leader. It was a landslide victory for Mancini over her only serious opponent, Holly McCall, Williamson County’s Democratic Party chair. Mancini received 48 votes from the members of the Democratic Party State Executive Committee, while McCall received just 19, the Associated Press reported. A third candidate, M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams of Memphis, finished a distant third place with two votes. Another candidate, Christopher J. Hale of Murfreesboro, withdrew from the contest before the vote was taken. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said, “There’s an adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” The Tennessee Democratic Party, after years of slipping further into political irrelevancy in the state clearly subscribes to the alternative: “if it’s broken, don’t fix it.” “Party activists are thrilled at Mancini’s re-election. Unfortunately for her party those are REPUBLICAN activists,” Gill said, laughing. Mancini’s four year tenure as chairman of the state party has been marked by abject failure. During her tenure no Democratic candidate for statewide office has come close to winning. The party’s best chance to secure statewide office–former Gov. Phil Bredesen–was crushed in November’s general election for the…

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