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Posts tagged ‘Jeff Sessions’

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Nose Blind

Attorney General seems to be nose blind when it comes to the corruption in the DOJ, the deep state, and Hillary’s crimes and corruption.

Attorney General Sessions DOJPolitical Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.
More A.F. Branco cartoons at Constitution.com here.

A.F.Branco’s New Coffee Table Book <—- Order Here!

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A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been seen all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News” and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, and even the great El Rushbo

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Today’s Ann Coulter Letter: Liberals Never Sleep (And Neither Does Jeff Sessions


Commentary by Ann Coulter  | 

The left is very close to having a governing majority due entirely to immigration. Despite the promise of the Trump campaign, there isn’t much standing in their way. Now, they’re just running out the clock. Soon, we will have admitted so many immigrants that it will be too late to do anything.

Although liberals pretend to have no idea where conservatives got the idea that immigration was designed to change the country and bring in new voters, they weren’t always so modest.

In a 1998 article for Cornell University’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Democratic political consultant Patrick Reddy exulted that the 1965 immigration act was “the Kennedy family’s greatest gift to the Democratic Party.” Changing the country’s demographics through immigration would be “George McGovern’s revenge,” liberal political strategist Ruy Teixeira announced 16 years ago — and then celebrated as a fait accompli upon Obama’s election in 2008.

The very reason the left loathes Trump is that he promised to stop their hostile takeover of our country. But instead of sticking it to his enemies by blocking their depraved agenda, he has fallen into their trap.

Obsessed with the Robert Mueller investigation, the president spends his days tweeting attacks on his attorney general, Jeff Sessions — the one member of Trump’s Cabinet making good on his campaign’s immigration promises.

It’s a win-win for the left. Either they drive Trump from office with an unending harassment campaign disguised as a legitimate investigation, or they keep him too distracted to thwart their plans to flood the country with foreigners.

The Swamp has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. Trump seems to have completely forgotten about the one policy the left fears most.

Evidently, the media have decided Trump is no longer a threat to their inevitable conquest. The Washington Post cheerfully touts the “growing diversity” — i.e., non-whiteness — of Democrats’ nominees. (“Black and Latino Democratic nominees boost their ranks by merging insider organization and outside money,” Aug. 29.)

The New York Times is already doing a victory dance on the corpse of historical America. Recently, the newspaper hired a white male-hating bigot, Sarah Jeong, for its editorial board. In the past week alone, the Times has run articles with these headlines: “Who’s Afraid of a White Minority?” and “The Religion of Whiteness Becomes a Suicide Cult.”

The gleeful destruction of our country may be less annoying than the insults to our intelligence necessary to pull it off.

To keep the mass migration flowing, we get lies, half-truths, insults and cliches. The citizenship of anchor babies is a lie (see “Adios, America”); the humanitarian need of so-called “refugees” is a lie (see “Adios, America”); the lower crime rate and welfare consumption of immigrants is a lie (see “Adios, America”); the Trump administration’s policy of “separating children” from their parents at the border is a lie.

About 80 percent of the “children” are teenaged boys, many of them MS-13 gang members. Recently a child rapist tried to enter the country, claiming the rapee was his daughter. Don’t separate children from their rapists!

The left doesn’t care about child rape or human trafficking. They just want an end to America and its infernal white people.

Children” captured at the border have to be released from custody after 20 days, pursuant to an ACLU-forged court order. Twenty days was the number the ACLU settled on after determining that it would be impossible to process the illegal border-crossers’ asylum claims within that time frame, so the kids and their alleged “parents” would have to be released into the country.

I could process the claims in 10 minutes. Anyone who shows up on our border after “fleeing” El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras isn’t fleeing anything. There are about 20 countries closer to their homes than the United States — and they speak the same language.

Among the countries closer to them than the U.S. is Mexico.

You’d think that, just as a PR matter, Mexico would say, We’re currently involved in this PR thing with the U.S., so let’s be REALLY nice to any illegals coming into our country. … He beats you? Oh, that’s awful — of course, you can stay here!

But no. Mexico says, Screw off, illegals. We’ll help you get to the U.S., but that’s the end of our beneficence.

The whole border surge is a hoax, intended to overwhelm the system and get Democrats their last needed non-American voters.

When they’re busted on their lies, liberals turn to cliches. “Diversity is a strength!” After four decades of mass immigration from the Third World, I think we’re all set on diversity. Any more diversity would be like bringing snow to Eskimos. We’re drowning in diversity.

Even if diversity were ever desirable — as opposed to what it is, which is “undesirable” — surely it’s not the most important value to a country. At best, diversity is a luxury, adding “vibrancy,” as The New York Times is constantly telling us.

It’s like having a rule that men need to set aside a certain amount of money each week to wear carnations in their lapels. Carnations are nice, but when you’re unemployed and the carnations are wormy, would you make that Priority No. 1?

Similarly, “diversity” is a luxury we can’t afford in a time of massive income inequality, stagnating wages and a raging heroin epidemic — with 90 percent of the heroin coming from Mexico.

When the cliches fall flat, they just say, So you’re with Hitler!

You’re Hitler if you support Teddy Kennedy’s original claims about his 1965 immigration bill. At the time, he and his co-conspirators swore up and down that it would not alter the country’s ethnic composition one iota. Now, it’s “white supremacist” to say: “We liked our country the way it was.”

Has anyone ever criticized a black, brown, beige, yellow, red or green nation for wanting to preserve its ethnicity? No, only a white majority is pure evil that must be extirpated.

When facing your new overlords, remember: When there was 10 seconds left on the clock, we decided to get rid of Jeff Sessions for keeping Trump’s promises on immigration, rather than using his office to protect the president from a Russian investigation so stupid that no one outside of the Swamp cares about it.

DEA Crackdown Bags Senior MS-13 Leader, 16 Others


Reported by Anders Hagstrom | Justice Reporter | 10:29 AM 01/12/2018

People arrested this week for being members of the MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha street gang among other crimes, flash their gang’s hand sign from inside a jail cell at a police station in San Salvador October 12, 2012. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) bagged the senior MS-13 leader for the Northeast U.S. along with 11 other high-ranking members of the gang in a Thursday crackdown operation, the New York Post reported.

The 17 defendants — five of whom are not MS-13 members — are facing charges including second-degree murder, drug trafficking, and conspiracy. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted, the Post reported Thursday. The unnamed Long Island-based leader operated two cells, code-named “Hollywood” and “Sailors.” He reported and transferred proceeds directly to MS-13 heads in El Salvador, according to the DEA.

“It started as a small-scale drug investigation on Long Island, a DEA investigation which is still growing, and as it went along and we brought other agencies on, we saw a violent threat that pushed us to get even more agencies involved and eventually apprehend this regional leader of MS-13,” DEA Special Agent in Charge James Hunt said in a statement. “Not only did we arrest the highest-level Mara Salvatrucha leader in the Northeast who reports to MS-13 in El Salvador, but we sent a message that we will continue to investigate their violent crimes and bring justice to their victims.”

The crackdown is the most recent operation against MS-13 since President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have made it a top priority to bring down the cartel. Sessions has heavily criticized sanctuary cities as well, claiming they are sanctuaries for crime.

The Justice Department has also partnered with several South American countries to bring down the gang. The DOJ took part in an international operation in October alongside El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that charged 3,800 gang members.

“MS-13 is one of the most violent and ruthless gangs in America today, endangering communities in more than 40 states. But under President Trump’s strong leadership, the Department of Justice is taking them off our streets,” Sessions said at the time. “MS-13 coordinates across our borders to kill, rape, and traffic drugs and underage girls; we’ve got to coordinate across our borders to stop them.”

“That’s exactly what our courageous and professional DOJ agents and attorneys are doing,” he added. “We will continue to maintain this steadfast policy and dismantle this gang.”

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Convenient: Mueller Nails Manafort Right After Hillary – Uranium One Scandal Explodes


Reported By Martin Walsh | October 30, 2017 at 4:48pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/mueller-nails-manafort-hillary-scandal/?

Shortly after several reports have linked both former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State/failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to the Uranium One scandal, Democrats are trying to shift everyone’s attention.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Trump’s former campaign manager from the 2016 presidential election, Paul Manafort, and his partner, Rick Gates, surrendered on Monday morning following an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia probe.

The news comes just days after the Justice Department announcement Thursday that it would lift a gag order on a secret FBI informant who has firsthand knowledge of the Uranium One deal involving the Clintons.

According to Townhall, the informant’s identity will remain anonymous, but they will be speaking with the Senate Judiciary Committee on how the Clintons benefited from selling U.S. uranium to a company connected to Russia.

Mueller’s indictments of former Trump officials come just days after an explosive report from The Hill, which detailed how Clinton approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to Russian nuclear company Rosatom, giving Russia 20 percent of the United States’ uranium.

Both The New York Times and New York Daily News reported that officials associated with the sale donated a reported $145 million to the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton was given $500,000 from a bank with ties to the Kremlin for giving a single speech in Moscow.

As detailed by a report from The Hill, the FBI had collected a plethora of documents showing that Russia officials involved with the Uranium One deal were engaged in extortion, bribery, kickbacks, and money laundering prior to the Obama administration — with Clinton’s help at the State Department — approving the deal in 2010.

The FBI agents also supplanted a U.S. witness to work closely with the Russian nuclear industry to gain inside access to financial records, collect emails, and make secret recordings on how Moscow violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

And yet, the Obama administration approved the sale and agreed to do business with the corrupt Russia company to sell 20 percent of the U.S.’ uranium.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said last week he wanted the Department of Justice to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One sale and the Obama administration’s involvement with the deal.

In light of the bombshell report exposing Obama and Clinton for carrying out a shady deal with Russia, Mueller conveniently decided to announce indictments that would move the spotlight back to someone else.

Grassley’s call for a special prosecutor into the Clinton Foundation allowing foreign governments to influence American policy while the Clintons gained personally is a bombshell story the must be investigated, but the mainstream media conveniently distracted everyone from this corruption with Mueller’s recent announcement.

H/T Townhall

Rush Limbaugh Says 1 Person Is Taking Over The GOP


Reported 

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/rush-limbaugh-says-1-person-is-taking-over-the-gop/?

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Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh made a bold statement on his program about Steve Bannon and the current state of the Republican Part y.

Limbaugh believes Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, is taking over the roles and responsibilities meant for GOP leadership by enforcing conservatism onto Republican candidates up for re-election.

“I think what Bannon is doing is slowly but surely taking over the role of the Republican Party,” Limbaugh said Wednesday. “The Republican Party is obviously not with Trump on balance — you have some in the House who are — but the Republican Party on balance is not with Trump.”

Steve Bannon played a major role in then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential victory upset last year and led the formulation of White House policy in the months that followed. He was Trump’s campaign chairman during the 2016 election and later served as a White House chief strategist — leading the nationalist wing of the administration.

After abruptly leaving the administration in mid-August, Bannon returned to his prior position as executive chairman of Breitbart News. Since leaving the White House, he made it clear he would use his position as a media executive to support insurgent conservative candidates running primaries against establishment GOP lawmakers.

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Bannon already appears good for his word.

In the special election in Alabama to fill the Senate seat once held by now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Bannon went against the Trump administration with his endorsement of Roy Moore. Bannon supported the successful candidacy of Moore, a controversial former judge, in a move that was at odds with Trump, who campaigned vehemently for Moore’s opponent, Sen. Luther Strange. By election day, it wasn’t even close. Moore bested Strange in the GOP primary by almost double digits. Moore now heads into the Alabama general election, where he will likely win in a state that leans red.

The primary results demonstrated the power of Bannon’s support.

The leader of Breitbart is not stopping with the Alabama special election. Bannon has recently announced he is expanding his GOP targets, adding Republican Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Orrin Hatch of Utah to his hit list.

> In Wyoming, Bannon is pushing Erik Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and founder of major security contractor Blackwater, to challenge Barrasso, CNN reported. 

> In Utah, Hatch may very well retire on his own. If he does, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is reportedly eyeing a run in the Mormon-majority state. If that happens, Bannon is ready to run a candidate against him.

According to a source close to Bannon, this is just a “partial” list of elections he is looking to influence.

Bannon is already working to knock off Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and his beleaguered campaign for re-election. Nevada Sen. Dean Heller and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker are also on Bannon’s radar.

“Some people make an argument that there really isn’t a Republican Party left. I mean, there are people who call themselves that and they go out and raise money and they raise a lot. But whereas the party used to be known for one, two, or three very serious things, they’re not anymore,” Limbaugh added on his radio show.

The conservative talk radio host believes Bannon and others are trying to keep the identity of the Republican Party alive by enforcing such standards onto them by way of primary challenges.

DeVos charges ahead on school choice


Reported

DeVos charges ahead on school choice | © Greg Nash

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has become an ardent foot soldier for President Trump’s deregulatory agenda while aggressively pushing her own school choice initiatives. The billionaire businesswoman was one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet selections, with Democrats and liberal groups assailing her lack of experience in public schools and her years at the helm of an organization that promoted school privatization.

The criticism hasn’t faded, but DeVos is charging ahead. She’s spent her first six months in office following Trump’s orders to cut regulatory red tape while making the case that charter schools and private school vouchers are the answer to the nation’s educational woes.

“Our nation’s commitment is to provide a quality education to every child to serve the public, common good. Accordingly, we must shift the paradigm to think of education funding as investments made in individual children, not in institutions or buildings,” DeVos said in March, according to prepared remarks for a speech at the Brookings Institution. 

But her message isn’t swaying opponents, who criticize her agenda as siphoning federal funding away from public schools and giving it to private schools that cater to the elite.

Lily Eskelsen García, the president of the National Education Association, a teachers union that opposed DeVos’s confirmation, said the school choice message is falling flat because people can do the math. 

“Ninety percent of kids go to public schools. 10 percent go to private schools,” she said. “If you take resources away than it hurts public school kids. They have less.” 

The National Education Association, a teachers union, was among the groups that opposed DeVos’s confirmation. The opposition to DeVos was so intense that two Republicans voted against her, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote — something that had never before happened for a Cabinet secretary.

Before DeVos took office, Eskelsen García said educators were having a great debate about ways to improve public education following the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act. The law rolled back high stakes testing and allowed states to come up with their own academic standards.

“Taking money away from public schools and giving it to private schools is not on that list, but for DeVos it’s the only thing on her list, ” Eskelsen García said.

DeVos has been pushing school choice every chance she gets.

In March she called historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) “real pioneers when it comes to school choice” in a statement after meeting with dozens of HBCU leaders.

“They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and great quality,” she said. “Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.”

Her remarks generated a backlash, as critics noted that HBCUs were created not out of choice but necessity because of racial segregation.

DeVos has since walked back those remarks, telling the AP last week she “should have decried much more forcefully the ravages of racism in this country.” 

Despite the gaffe and constant criticism she receives, supporters of DeVos say she is making headway on her agenda.

“There’s no question she got off to a less than smooth start, but I think in the last few weeks and months she’s beginning to find her sea legs and as a result she’s had a fair amount of success given the tremendous opposition she’s been facing from the education establishments,” said Ed Patru, a vice president at the D.C. public affairs firm, DCI Group, and the former spokesman for the now dissolved Friends of Betsy DeVos coalition.

“She’s laying the groundwork for federal school choice, she’s reorienting the Office of Civil Rights towards due process and civil engagement and when it comes to spending priorities, she put forth a budget proposal that brings the department back to a much more focused mission.”

DeVos’s budget plan called for cutting $9 billion from the department in 2018, including $2.3 billion in teacher training grants and $1.2 billion for an after school programs that serves children in some of the nation’s poorest communities, while investing $1.4 billion on new public and private school choice opportunities.

“Look, this is what the American people elected,” Patru said.

“They wanted change and an outsider’s perspective and she certainly brings that to the department.” 

Aside from school choice, DeVos has announced plans to redo the gainful employment and the borrower defense to repayment rules — two Obama-era regulations aimed at ensuring students at for-profit colleges get the education they pay for.

DeVos had said the Education Department’s regulatory reform task force, which Trump ordered each agency to create, has found another 150 regulations for the department offices to review.

She also joined Attorney General Jeff Sessions in rescinded guidance directing schools to let transgender students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. That’s the policy change that gets to Eskelsen García the most.

“These are incredibly vulnerable children that face incredible discrimination in their little lives,” she said. “She could have, without it costing a dime, left that protection in place and she took it away.”  

Jennifer Steele, an associate professor of education at American University, was an initial supporter of DeVos. In an op-ed for Education Week in March, she argued that the left should give the new secretary of Education a chance.

Now, following the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend, Steele said DeVos should demonstrate a stronger respect for traditional public schools in addition to the private education alternatives she’s pushing.

“The purpose of schooling is to expose people to diverse ideas and experiences. By allowing people to opt out of public schooling we risk having a more fragmented society and in the wake of the events in Charlottesville, that’s really an increasing concern,” she said.

“I’d like to see this administration grapple with that question a bit more, how to ensure a threshold of education for all children and exposure to diverse people and ideas in their schools.”

Trump declares ‘racism is evil’ after firestorm


Reported

URL of the original posting site: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/346483-trump-declares-racism-is-evil-after-firestorm

 

President Trump declared Monday that “racism is evil” in public comments at the White House, and for the first time called out the KKK, Nazis and other hate groups specifically for their role in this weekend’s violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

“Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to what we hold dear as Americans,” Trump said in a surprise statement from the Diplomatic Reception Room.

He spoke after a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The president pledged to hold accountable “anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence.”

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“Justice will be delivered,” he said.Trump’s remarks, which he read from a teleprompter, and the meeting with top law enforcement officials were clearly intended to send a new signal from the White House after the president came under fierce criticism from members of both parties for an initial response in which he blamed “many sides” for what happened in Charlottesville.

He did not specifically mention white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan or any other groups that marched in Charlottesville in those remarks on Saturday.

One person was killed and 19 other injured when police say a 20-year-old Ohio man with ties to white supremacist groups drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the “Unite the Right” rally. White supremacist groups had also marched through Charlottesville chanting slogans against Jews and other groups.

The Justice Department has opened a civil-rights investigation into the car attack.

Trump spoke personally for the first time about the victim, Heather Heyer, 32, saying, “her death fills us with grief, and we send her and her family our thoughts, our prayers and our love.”

He also mourned the two police officers who died in a helicopter crash during the incident — H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates.

Trump did not refer to the attack as an act of terrorism, a description used by his national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday. But he said that his administration will “spare no resource” in working to fulfill a campaign promise to restore law and order.

The president did not directly address minority and nonwhite groups who might have felt victimized by Saturday’s events, instead making a general call for unity.

“We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence,” he said. “We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.”

Trump had come under heavy criticism from his own party over his initial response to the violence, with some Republicans signaling deep disappointment. “Mr. President — we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism,” Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, the head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, tweeted Saturday.

Trump, who has a well-known distaste for admitting any mistake, waited nearly another 48 hours before offering the new remarks. They came after he had lashed out Monday morning at the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. for resigning from a White House advisory council over the president’s initial comments.

“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier said.

“Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” Trump tweeted in response.

Trump began his remarks Monday by talking about the growth in the American economy, and took no questions after his statement.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), speaking on MSNBC immediately after Trump’s remarks, said he was glad to see the president call out the white supremacist groups, though he added that he wished it would not have taken so long. “I wish he would have said those same words on Saturday,” he said. “I’m disappointed it took him a couple of days.”

The events of the past three days have created yet another crisis for the embattled president. The president returned to Washington on Monday for a day of work, interrupting his 17-day summer vacation at his private golf club in New Jersey. Trump was already battling criticism of his handling of a nuclear standoff with North Korea when clashes between white nationalists and counter protesters broke out in Charlottesville.

The controversies coincide with Trump’s struggles to hold together the base that helped elect him president. His approval rating dropped to the lowest level of his presidency, according to Gallup’s daily tracking poll. The survey was conducted over a three-day period ending Sunday, meaning that some of the respondents participated before the Charlottesville incidents.

Ben Kamisar contributed.

Trump Administration Rewards Miami For Reversing Its Sanctuary Policies


Reported 

URL of the original posting site: http://www.westernjournalism.com/trump-administration-rewards-miami-reversing-sanctuary-policies/

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Miami-Dade County was told Friday by the Department of Justice that it will no longer be treated as a so-called sanctuary city after the county changed its policies in February surrounding detaining jailed inmates sought by federal authorities for deportation.

Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez was notified by Alan Hanson, an acting assistant attorney general, that the DOJ found “no evidence that Miami Dade County is currently out of compliance,” clearing the way for the county to receive $481,347 in federal law enforcement funding in form of a Byrne JAG grant.

Miami was first classified as a sanctuary city by the Obama administration for its 2013 policy that authorized the county to begin denying “detainer” requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The policy provided that the county would only hold inmates sought for deportation if they faced severe charges and if the federal government would reimburse the county for extra detention time.

But shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, Gimenez dropped the policy, ordering county jails to comply with ICE detentions requests.

The Miami-Dade Commission voted 9-3 in February in support of the mayor’s policy to honor ICE detention requests.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in July that the DOJ would impose new conditions on Byrne JAG grants, a leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions.

“From now on, the Department will only provide Byrne JAG grants to cities and states that comply with federal law, allow federal immigration access to detention facilities, and provide 48 hours notice before they release an illegal alien wanted by federal authorities,” Sessions said in a statement announcing the new restrictions.

Miami-Dade’s decision to change its sanctuary status worked. The county received assurances from the DOJ Friday that it was in compliance and would receive a Byrne JAG Grant valued at $481,347, which will go towards enhancing the Miami Dade Police Department’s “intelligence gathering and police operations with investments in technology and specialized equipment,” according to Gimenez.

“This is good news,” said Gimenez’s communications director, Michael Hernández.

Hernández said the county is now requesting that the Trump administration remove Miami-Dade from the Obama administration’s original list of sanctuary cities.

“We’d like to have formal notification that we are no longer a sanctuary community,” Hernández said. “That request is being made.”

Miami-Dade is the only large jurisdiction in the country known to have complied with Trump’s request to crack down on its sanctuary city policy. Other sanctuary cities, such as Chicago, are calling foul at the Trump administration’s new restrictions surrounding Byrne JAG grants. Chicago was expected to receive $3.2 million in federal grants this year to purchase law enforcement equipment. But instead of complying, Chicago opted on Monday to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration to prevent it from enforcing the new policies.

“We are bringing this legal challenge because the rhetoric, the threats from this administration embodied in these new conditions imposed on unrelated public safety grants funds are breeding a culture and climate of fear,” said the senior legal adviser for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Sunday it was “tragic” that Emanuel was more concerned about protecting illegal immigrants than he was by the high murder rate on the streets of Chicago.

“It’s especially tragic that the mayor is less concerned with that staggering figure than he is spending time and taxpayer money protecting criminal aliens and putting Chicago’s law enforcement at greater risk,” Flores said in a statement.

Chicago is the first city to challenge the Trump administration over its new restrictions surrounding Byrne JAG grants.

Trump Team Attends Weekly White House Bible Study


Reported 

URL of the original posting site: http://www.westernjournalism.com/trump-team-attends-weekly-white-house-bible-study/

Several members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, as well as Vice President Mike Pence are meeting together for a weekly Bible study at the White House. CBN News reported that Trump’s cabinet has been called “the most evangelical” in the history of the country.

Regular attendees to the study include Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Agricultural Secretary Sonny Perdue, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Pence — who described himself at the 2016 Republican National Convention as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order” — attends the study as often as his busy travel schedule permits.

The study is led by former NBA player Ralph Drollinger, who played for the UCLA Bruins under legendary coach John Wooden and became the first player in NCAA history to make it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament four times. The Bruins won the national championship in two of those years.

Wooden was also an evangelical Christian, who sought to coach his team integrating Christian principles.

After his retirement from the NBA, Drollinger founded Capitol Ministries, which has launched Bible studies in 40 state capitols, as well as several foreign nations. Its mission is to evangelize and disciple public servants.The organization also leads weekly studies at the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Drollinger told CBN News that about a dozen members attend his weekly White House study.

“These are godly individuals that God has risen to a position of prominence in our culture,” he said. “It’s the best Bible study that I’ve ever taught in my life. They are so teachable; they’re so noble; they’re so learned.”

Drollinger said he believes the regular study is the first formal one in the White House in at least 100 years.

The Christian leader spoke highly of Pence, likening him to key Biblical leaders whom God raised up to the second-highest spot in government, including Joseph, Daniel and Mordecai.

“And I praise God for Mike Pence, who I think with Donald Trump chose great people to lead our nation,” Drollinger said.

Trump is invited to the study, and receives notes following each week’s meeting.

As reported by Western Journalism, Trump’s top spiritual adviser, Pastor Paula White, said that the president has “heart for God, a hunger for God.”

She added that Trump “has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve had in-depth conversations about God.”

A reverence for God and the Bible in Washington has strong precedent. The largest Protestant church congregation in the country used to meet at the U.S. Capitol in the 1800s. At its height, over 2,000 attended weekly, including members of Congress and the executive branch.

Thomas Jefferson was a regular attendee, both as vice president and president.

Senate confirms Gorsuch to Supreme Court, giving Trump big win


The Senate on Friday confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, giving President Trump the biggest victory of his first 100 days in office. The 54-45 vote caps a bitter political battle that began with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia more than a year ago and resulted in the Senate triggering the “nuclear option,” breaking Democrats’ blockade and ending filibusters for Supreme Court nominees.

Three Democrats facing reelection next year in strongly pro-Trump states voted for Gorsuch: Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), and Joe Donnelly (Ind.).

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But two Democrats facing reelection in 2018 in states Trump won by double digits — Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) — voted no, a reflection of Trump’s slumping approval rating among independents and the boiling rage of the Democratic base over his 2016 electoral victory.

Gorsuch will be sworn in as the Supreme Court’s 101st associate justice on Monday. 

Chief Justice John Roberts is set to administer the Constitutional Oath in a private ceremony at 9 a.m., and Justice Anthony Kennedy will administer the oath at a public ceremony at the White House later in the morning.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said the fight will leave a scorch mark on the Senate because Republicans employed the nuclear option.

“It will make this body a more partisan place. It will make the cooling saucer of the Senate considerably hotter, and I believe it will make the Supreme Court more of a partisan place,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, argued that the change to the filibuster, which Republicans made with a party-line vote Thursday, would restore the Senate to its tradition of not filibustering judicial nominees.

He praised Gorsuch’s credentials Friday as “sterling,” his record as “excellent” and his judicial temperament as “ideal.” He said he wished “that important aspects of this process had played out differently” but held out hope that “today is a new day” and that Democrats would not hold a grudge as the chamber considers other priorities this year.

“I hope my Democratic friends will take this moment to reflect and perhaps consider a turning point in their outlook going forward,” he said.

Some Democrats questioned whether it was worth getting into a showdown with McConnell over Gorsuch and losing their power to filibuster future Supreme Court nominees. These few dissenters thought it might be tougher for Republicans to change the rules if a swing seat on the court became open later on in Trump’s term, when he might have less political capital.  Democratic leaders, however, disagreed, arguing that McConnell would be just as likely like to change the rules in the future.

Democrats tried to block Gorsuch because they said his rulings tended to favor powerful interests over average people and also because they were still furious over Republicans’ treatment of Merrick Garland, whom President Obama nominated a year ago to fill the vacancy left by Scalia.

McConnell announced immediately after Scalia’s death that Garland would not receive consideration by the GOP-controlled Senate and that the winner of the presidential election should pick the nominee. Democrats argued that decision broke 230 years of precedent and would best be remedied by Gorsuch withdrawing and Trump picking a “more mainstream candidate.”

That proposal went nowhere as Republicans argued that Trump made clear during last year’s campaign that he would pick a judge from a list of 21 conservatives, on which Gorsuch was included.

A CNN exit poll showed that 56 percent of Trump voters said the Supreme Court was “the important factor” in their votes, and 46 percent said it was “an important factor.”

Gorsuch isn’t likely to change the most recent ideological balance of the court as he replaces one of its most outspoken and conservative jurists. He called Scalia a “mentor” at his confirmation hearings and, like his predecessor did, takes an “originalist” approach to the law meant to hew to the intentions of the Founding Fathers and follow legal language strictly. That approach became a sticking point for Democrats, who criticized him for relying on what they called overly literal readings of the law to decide in favor of those in power, such as a trucking company in TransAm Trucking v. Administrative Review Board that fired a driver who refused to stay for hours with a disabled vehicle in freezing weather.

Republicans countered by touting Gorsuch’s academic and professional credentials; his clerkships with two Supreme Court justices, Anthony Kennedy and Byron White; his unanimous rating of well-qualified by the American Bar Association; and his record of deciding with the majority in 99 percent of the cases he heard.

Gorsuch appeared poised to sail through the Senate as Democrats earlier this year were more focused on Trump’s more controversial Cabinet appointees, such as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Democrats had failed to dig up any seriously damaging writings, statements or indiscretions, and even Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the most liberal justice on the high court, said Gorsuch was “very easy to get along with.”

The lack of strong early resistance angered liberal groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America, MoveOn.Org and the Services Employee International Union, which wrote a stern letter to Democratic senators early last month exhorting them to “do better.” The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative group backing Gorsuch, countered pressure from the left by launching a $10 million advertising campaign to bolster his nomination. The National Rifle Association also poured in $1 million to help Gorsuch.

It became apparent Monday,  when several Democrats who were on the fence came out against his nomination, that Gorsuch would not win confirmation unless Republicans moved to eliminate the filibuster. By Monday evening, 42 Democrats and one Independent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), had announced they would block the final vote. McConnell announced the next day that he had the votes to trigger the nuclear option. 

Vice President Pence presided over the vote. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who recently underwent back surgery, missed it.

– Updated at 12:47 p.m.

Senate goes ‘nuclear’ to advance Trump Supreme Court pick


The Senate voted Thursday to move forward with Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination after Republicans took a historic step that lowers the vote threshold for high court nominees to a simple majority.  Senators voted 55-45 to end debate on Gorsuch’s nomination, setting up a final confirmation vote for Friday. Thanks to a procedural move that changed Senate rules earlier Thursday, a simple majority was needed to move forward.

Democrats had successfully blocked Gorsuch’s nomination from getting 60 votes earlier, prompting Republicans to employ the “nuclear option,” which effectively ends filibusters for all Supreme Court nominees. Democrats tried to delay the rule change vote by offering motions to postpone a vote and to adjourn the chamber, but both fell short as Republicans stayed unified.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) voted with Republicans to allow President Trump’s pick to move forward.

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Republicans defended the party-line vote on the nuclear option, saying Democrats were to blame for blocking Gorsuch, who they believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) argued that Democrats should “come to their senses.” 

“The truth of the matter is that throughout this process, the minority led by their leader has been desperately searching for a justification for their preplanned filibuster,” he said ahead of Thursday’s votes.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) added that the current stalemate was part of a decades-long Democratic effort to “politicize the courts and the confirmation process.” 

“The opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man that nominated him and the party he represents than the nominee himself,” he said. 

Republicans hinted for weeks that Trump’s nominee would be confirmed one way or another. McConnell confirmed during a leadership press conference that he had the votes to go nuclear if needed. Republicans appeared resigned to the tactics, arguing if Democrats won’t support Gorsuch — who received the American Bar Association’s highest rating — they won’t allow any GOP nominee to join the Supreme Court.

But Democrats made a last-minute pledge for Republicans to back down and change the nominee, an argument that never gained traction with GOP senators.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “When a nominee doesn’t get enough votes for confirmation the answer is not to change the rules, it’s to change the nominee.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) during an eleventh-hour press conference blasted the GOP tactics, saying it “is just wrong to pack the court through this stolen seat.” 

“That’s why it’s so important that we still in the few hours that we have left hopefully stop this really crime against the Constitution,” he said. 

Progressives groups also stepped up their attacks heading into Thursday’s vote, warning that Republicans will be to blame for going “nuclear.”  The People’s Defense — a coalition of roughly a dozen progressive groups led by NARAL Pro-Choice America — released a digital ad campaign targeting Republicans in Arizona, Alaska, Maine, Nevada and South Carolina, warning them that “history is watching.”

Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Dean Heller (Nev.), among those being targeted by outside groups, are Republicans’ two most vulnerable incumbents. Schumer echoed that from the Senate floor on Thursday, saying that Republicans “had other choices. They’ve chosen this one.” 

“The responsibility for changing the rules will fall on Republicans and Leader McConnell’s shoulders,” he said. 

Democrats remain deeply bitter of Republicans treatment of Merrick Garland, whom former President Barack Obama’s nominated to fill the vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February 2016. GOP leaders refused to give Garland a hearing or a vote. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) argued that the current stalemate over the Supreme Court dates back Scalia’s death and “what we’re facing today is the fallout.” 

But the hardball tactics drew skepticism from both Republican and Democratic senators, who held around-the-clock negotiations to try to prevent the rule change but ultimately failed.

Told that by a reporter that some people think the Senate will function better without the filibuster, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) fired back: “Whoever said that is a stupid idiot.” 

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) also warned that without the need for 60 votes to break a filibuster, Trump might easily appoint Attorney General Jeff Sessions or EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to the Supreme Court in the future.

“Partisanship should give way to patriotism,” said Bennet, who backed ending debate on Gorsuch’s nomination earlier Thursday but voted against it in the second vote. “If we go down this road we will undermine the minorities ability to check this administration and all those who follow.”

People Are Loving This Integrity Move By Sessions


Reported by Photo of Kevin Daley Kevin Daley | Legal Affairs Reporter | 5:09 PM 03/14/2017

URL of the original posting site: : http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/14/people-are-loving-this-integrity-move-by-sessions/#ixzz4bQimHfUZ

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has granted a temporary reprieve to two of the 46 Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys he dismissed late last week, so that they may fulfill the requirements necessary to collect federal retirement benefits.

U.S. attorneys Deirdre Daly of the District of Connecticut and Richard Hartunian of the Northern District of New York have both worked in the U.S. Department of Justice in various capacities for over 19 years, and are just a few months away from reaching the 20-year threshold necessary for certain federal benefits. Sessions agreed to allow them to stay on for a few more months in order to reach the 20-year mark.

Daly and Hartunian both expressed gratitude to Sessions and President Donald Trump, thanking them for their graciousness and promising to oversee a quick and orderly transition.

“I thank the Attorney General and the Administration for affording me the opportunity to remain as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut so that I might complete 20 years of service to the Department of Justice in October,” Daly said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of the residents of Connecticut in my remaining time, and I will focus on an orderly transition as I complete what has been a rewarding tenure in the Office.”

“The Attorney General has graciously permitted me to remain as United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York through June of 2017 so that I can complete twenty years of service to the Department of Justice,” Hartunian said. “I am very grateful to the Attorney General and the Administration for this opportunity to finish up a 20-year career and I will do everything I can to assist in the orderly transition to my successor.”

An additional Obama-appointee, Dana Boente, will also remain in his post as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Boente served as acting attorney general after the president dismissed Sally Yates for refusing to defend his first executive order on refugees and migrants in court. Boente oversaw efforts to defend the directive’s legality during his brief tenure. He is now serving as acting deputy attorney general pending the confirmation of Rod Rosenstein, the president’s nominee for that post.

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THE DRAINING OF THE SWAMP HAS BEGUN: Sessions Asks All Obama-Era U.S. Attorneys To Resign


Reported by Photo of Kevin Daley Kevin Daley | Legal Affairs Reporter | 3:50 PM 03/10/2017

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked for the resignations of all remaining U.S. attorneys appointed by former President Barack Obama. A U.S. attorney is the chief federal prosecutor in a particular jurisdiction. It has become standard practice during recent transitions for appointees of the previous administration to leave the Department of Justice in the early months of a new presidency. President Ronald Reagan replaced 89 U.S. attorneys during the early months of his presidency. President Bill Clinton dismissed 93 when he assumed office.

“As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States Attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. “The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition.”

“Until the new U.S. Attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our U.S. Attorney’s Offices will continue the great work of the Department in investigating, prosecuting, and deterring the most violent offenders,” she added.

Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, was not among those asked to resign. He served as acting attorney general for several days after the Trump administration dismissed acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend the president’s first executive order on refugees and migrants in court. He currently is serving as acting deputy attorney general, pending the confirmation of Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein is U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland. He also was asked to remain in place.

The New York Times reports Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, was among those asked to step aside. Trump himself asked Bharara to remain in office during the transition, though it was never clear how long Bharara would continue to man his post. The Manhattan-based prosecutor is a fixture of national headlines, after numerous high profile investigations of Wall Street financiers and public officials in New York state, including individuals close to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concern about the dismissals in a statement released late Friday. The senator characterized the departures as abrupt, and asserted they reflect a disorderly transition at DOJ.

“In January, I met with Vice President Pence and White House Counsel Donald McGahn and asked specifically whether all U.S. attorneys would be fired at once,” she said. “Mr. McGahn told me that the transition would be done in an orderly fashion to preserve continuity. Clearly this is not the case. I’m very concerned about the effect of this sudden and unexpected decision on federal law enforcement.”

Several unnamed sources told CNN many prosecutors learned of their dismissal through media reports, and that senior officials had not communicated clearly with U.S. attorneys about staffing changes. The report does not make clear whether any of the sources are currently serving in the Justice Department, or if they were even familiar with the internal deliberations of the Trump administration with respect to this issue.

There are 94 U.S. Attorneys, all of whom are appointed by the president.

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Senate confirms Carson to lead HUD


waving flag disclaimerAuthored

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Ben Carson to be President Trump’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The final vote was 58-41. Carson needed a simple majority to be approved.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Warner (Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Jon Tester (Mont.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) joined all Republicans in backing Carson. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) did not vote.
The former neurosurgeon wasn’t a top target for Senate Democrats. But Carson’s nomination and lack of government experience has divided the caucus.
Top Democrats — including Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) — voted against Carson’s nomination earlier this week.

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But red-state Democrats, including Manchin, Donnelly and Heitkamp, voted with Republicans to support him.

Republicans have rallied around Carson’s nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted ahead of the vote that he would be confirmed with bipartisan support. “[He] can begin bringing much needed reforms to the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” he said from the Senate floor.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) also urged his colleagues to support Carson. “Once Dr. Carson is confirmed we can begin working on several important issues under HUD’s jurisdiction,” he said.
Carson easily cleared the Senate Banking Committee in late January, picking up the support of liberal senators elizabeth-lieawatha-warrenincluding Brown and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Warren defended her committee vote amid backlash from progressive outside groups, writing on a Facebook post: “Yes, he is not the nominee I wanted. But ‘the nominee I wanted’ is not the test.” Warren didn’t vote for Carson during the Senate’s procedural vote on Wednesday, and she voted against him again Thursday.
Carson’s nomination has been largely free of controversy. Senators only questioned Carson for 2 1/2 hours during his confirmation hearing, in contrast to more controversial picks — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions — who faced hours of intense grilling. Democrats have voiced public skepticism about Carson’s qualifications, noting that the onetime presidential candidate also previously questioned whether he was fit to run a federal agency.
“Having me as a federal bureaucrat would be like a fish out of water,” he said in November, on the heels of rumors that he would be considered for Trump’s Cabinet.
Carson, a conservative Christian, also received some criticism for suggesting that LGBT Americans don’t deserve “extra rights.” picture2
But neither impeded his nomination. Crapo thanked Brown from the Senate floor for being willing to work with him to get Carson to the Senate floor for a vote.  It is unclear how Carson will shape the agency. He told lawmakers in his confirmation hearing that he wants to have “listening sessions” with housing officials around the country. He was also noncommittal about upholding an Obama-era rule that beefed up a fair housing law.

Trump Justice Department Signals An End To Transgender Locker Room Lunacy In Public Schools


waving flagAuthored by Eric Owens Photo of Eric Owens | Education Editor | 10:36 PM 02/13/2017

URL of the original posting site:  http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/13/trump-justice-department-signals-an-end-to-transgender-locker-room-lunacy-in-public-schools/#ixzz4YhoxfcdE

Rule lets students pick their own bathroom (Creative Commons photo, Public domain)

A motion filed in federal court by the Justice Department on Friday suggests that newly-minted Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reassessing a vague Obama administration order allowing transgender students in America’s public schools to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.

The Justice Department’s new motion in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeks permission to delay a hearing on a previous motion — filed last year — which had asked the court to ease a preliminary injunction by federal district judge Reed O’Connor striking down Obama administration guidance about bathroom and shower use in taxpayer-funded schools.

The Obama administration guidance, sent in May, instructed public school districts across the country to allow transgender students to choose bathrooms and shower stalls consistent with their gender identity, not their biological features. “A school’s failure to treat students consistent with their gender identity may create or contribute to a hostile environment in violation of Title IX,” the guidance said, in reference to the 1972 federal law banning gender discrimination in education.more

The U.S. Department of Justice motion to delay came just one day after Sessions was sworn as President Donald Trump’s attorney general. The parties are “currently considering how best to proceed in this appeal,” the motion states, according to ABC News.

The preliminary injunction, entered in August, stems from a 2016 lawsuit filed by the state of Texas in response to the Obama administration’s transgender bathrooms directive. A dozen states have joined the suit, setting the stage for what once appeared to loom as a legal battle that could have huge implications for transgender legal issues.

no-doubt-about-it

Image added by WhatDidYouSay.org

The suing states accused the agencies of issuing the guidelines by means of regulatory “dark matter,” a deluge of agency directives, notices, memoranda, guidance documents, and even blog posts which effectively create new policy without congressional legislation or Administrative Procedure Act (APA) protocols. The states claim that this strategy allows agencies to evade judicial review and achieve their policy objectives. (RELATED: Texas Leads 13 States In Lawsuit To Stop Obama Transgender Bathroom Rules)

Judge O’Connor, an appointee of George W. Bush, wrote in the preliminary injunction that Title IX “is not ambiguous” concerning “the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.” 

A Justice Department spokesman refused to comment on the motion to delay the hearing. Transgender enthusiasts lamented the Justice Department motion.

“Our concern is that it’s a very clear signal that at a minimum the Department of Justice — and possibly more broadly throughout the Trump administration — will not protect transgender students,” Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow told ABC News.bathroom-protest-poster-640x480-1

Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case involving a female Virginia high school student, Gavin Grimm, who insists on using boys’ bathrooms and locker rooms despite the fact that she is a girl. Grimm’s saga dates back to 2014 when the school board in Gloucester County, Virginia refused to allow her to use boys’ bathrooms and locker rooms. The school board chairman at the time, George Burak, observed that other students use bathrooms and locker rooms in addition to Grimm. To placate Grimm, now 17, the school district paid to build a number of unisex, single-person bathrooms for all students — including Grimm — to use. Grimm was unsatisfied. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, she and her parents sued the school district under Title IX, a comprehensive 1972 federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of biological sex. (RELATED: ACLU Sues To Allow Girl To Use Boys Bathroom, Locker Rooms At Public High School)

transgender-bathroom-sign

Image added by WhatDidYouSay.org

At least one physician has diagnosed Grimm with gender dysphoria, which means that Grimm insists she is actually a boy even though she was born with and lived her life with female reproductive organs. A lower court order — currently stayed — had directed the Gloucester County school district to allow Grimm to use boys’ bathrooms.

John Banzhaf, a famed public interest law professor at the George Washington University Law School, noted in a statement sent to The Daily Caller that the rights and safety concerns of transgender students must be balanced against the rights and safety concerns of everyone else who must use the same set of public bathrooms in a given taxpayer-funded building.

“The concerns about assault are raised not primarily about transgender males, but rather about traditional males who would have a legal defense if found within a female restroom,” Banzhaf said.

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get-over-it

GOP Rep: Attacks On Sessions Are Part Of Democrats’ ‘War On Whites’


waving flagAuthored by Photo of Scott Greer Scott Greer / Deputy Editor /  01/11/2017

Republican Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks claimed during a Tuesday radio interview that Democrats who strongly criticize attorney general nominee and Republican Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions are motivated to do so by their party’s “war on whites” agenda.war-on-whites

As first reported by CNN Wednesday, Brooks told a local Alabama radio host that Democrats are trying to paint Sessions as a racist because it aligns with their political goals. “Well, if you get right down to it, it’s all about political power, and the Democrats are not shy about lying in order to achieve their political goals. And if they have to besmirch the reputation of a good man, Jeff Sessions, in order to achieve their political goals, they as a group are not hesitant to do so,” he stated on the show.partyof-deceit-spin-and-lies

Brooks went on to defend Sen. Sessions’ voting rights record and argued Democrats are misrepresenting the nominee’s stances as a political “tool” to scare their voters. “It’s really about political power and racial division and what I’ve referred to on occasion as the ‘war on whites.’ They are trying to motivate the African-American vote to vote-bloc for Democrats by using every ‘Republican is a racist’ tool that they can envision,” he declared. “Even if they have to lie about it.”

Tuesday was not the first time Brooks caused controversy by saying there’s a “war on whites.” During an August 2014 radio interview with Laura Ingraham, he said President Obama and his party wage a “war on whites” to win votes among minority voters.

“This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party,” the congressman said at the time. “And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else. It’s a part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008. He did it again in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things.” (RELATED: Alabama Congressman: Dems Waging ‘War On Whites’)

We have been torn apart

Image added by WhatDidYouSay.org

Ingraham disagreed with Brooks’ words and said the war claim was “a little out there.”

In spite of a swift backlash against his comments, the Alabama Republican doubled-down on them and further asserted that whites are the only race that can be lawfully discriminated[d] against.”

The Real Reason for the Left’s All-Out Assault on Jeff Sessions


waving flagAuthored by J. Christian Adams / / January 11, 2017

URL of the original posting site: http://dailysignal.com/2017/01/11/the-real-reason-for-the-lefts-all-out-assault-on-jeff-sessions/

Protesters held signs at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to become U.S. attorney general on Jan. 10, 2017. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque /Reuters/Newscom)

<!– Protesters held signs at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to become U.S. attorney general on Jan. 10, 2017. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque
/Reuters/Newscom)
–>

Observers of this week’s confirmation hearings for the post of U.S. attorney general might think it odd to see Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., rewind the clock to a single voter fraud case from the 1980s. Under persistent questioning, Sessions has had to defend his decision to prosecute a case of brazen voter fraud—something that was his job to do. The repeated references to this case by some senators represent just how far the civil rights industry has swerved from its honorable roots to derail a confirmation.derangement-syndrom

Character assassination, false testimony, performance protests aimed at securing retweets instead of reconciliation, and more have all been trained on the Alabama senator.

The oft-referenced voter fraud case Sessions brought involved the harvesting of absentee ballots by a trio then lionized as “the Perry County Three” in the mid-1980s. These Perry County defendants faced charges for mail fraud and casting multiple ballots in a single election. They simply stole votes. They weren’t acting to further civil rights—they were committing crimes.picture1

As Sessions mentioned in his testimony, the offense was reported by local black complainants whose absentee ballots were being intercepted and voted without their consent.picture2

To understand the obscene dishonesty used to reframe this matter against Sessions, we must sample the misleading statements that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and its allies have used to retell the story.

Last week, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick penned a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, doubting Sessions’ ability to fairly protect the rights of minorities given his previous decision to prosecute the absentee ballot harvesters. Patrick portrayed the ballot harvesting as a benign tool to enfranchise the historically disenfranchised. A reasonable person who hears that claim repeatedly might fall for it. But there is a larger problem: It is simply untrue.

Contrary to what the NAACP and its friends may say, the right to vote exists with the individual, not the political machine that forces “assistance” on voters without their input. Arguing that the decision to prosecute voter fraud is itself a disqualifying offense when seeking the job of attorney general demonstrates just how perverse the modern left has become with respect to the rule of law. The left’s highlighting of this one case demonstrates that the institutional left is afraid. It is afraid it may soon lose enormous power because the Sessions Department of Justice will no longer participate in its radical racialist agenda.picture3

For years going back before the Obama era, the Justice Department has served as a reliable signal caller to increasingly leftward actors that utilize racialized interpretations of law—particularly election policy—to ensure future political victories for Democrats.

As I wrote in my book, “Injustice,” the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder wasted no time in performing a course change that ignored the enforcement of federal requirements for maintaining voter rolls. It also later zeroed in on state voter ID laws with such zealotry that it started losing cases—such as in South Carolina. The Justice Department used the trappings of civil rights enforcement to advance the cause of the Democratic Party. Indeed, some academics writing about the Voting Rights Act have explicitly called for such partisan enforcement at Department of Justice. Michigan law professor Ellen Katz, for example, made this view plain in a law review article titled “Democrats at DOJ: Why Partisan Use of the Voting Rights Act Might Not Be So Bad After All.”

The mess that Sessions must clean up doesn’t end with naked partisanship in civil rights enforcement. It also reaches a racialist interpretation of civil rights, which protects some and neglects to protect others.

A Department of Justice inspector general report released in 2013 noted that there was open hostility among staff toward pursuing voting rights cases against black voters, especially where whites were harmed. (I pursued such cases in Noxubee County, Mississippi.) The inspector general investigation also revealed that management-level officers “did not believe the Voting Section should pursue cases on behalf of white victims.” We now see this attitude manifest in the inaction against the violent, racially motivated attacks against Donald Trump voters, despite civil rights laws clearly being implicated.

This is the Justice Department that Sessions will inherit. But unlike his predecessors, the Alabaman’s record directly contrasts with much of the established culture there.

Nonprofit allies have grown comfortable knowing there are colleagues in the Justice Department who are happy to race-test a case before pursuing a civil rights violation. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and others can count on a friendly brief flown in from Washington, D.C., when targeting an election integrity reform in a politically valuable state. They can even benefit from the department’s voice in telling a court to exclude parties dedicated to voter ID laws from joining the table of interveners in a case.

The financial incentive of certain organizations to maintain a Sessions-free status quo is also an important consideration. The groups allied with President Barack Obama’s Justice Department are more than email lists and press releases—these are giant edifices working to undermine the electoral system, which have become increasingly beholden to the largest progressive financiers.partyof-deceit-spin-and-lies

The combined payroll of just a handful of leading organizations’ chief officers—to include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Action Network—is measured in the many millions, not thousands.picture4

The professional struggle for racialized enforcement of voting rights has become an incredible vehicle for wealth creation inside the civil rights industry. Civil rights—genuine equality before lawhas taken the back seat to power and wealth.AMEN

Attorneys general come and go. Every career Department of Justice veteran knows that. But what the establishment left knows even better is that a sea change in law enforcement priorities—like what Sessions promises—can be devastating to grand political designs and personal bank accounts alike. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that a former governor and assistant attorney general for civil rights like Patrick would hint that Sessions’ decision to prosecute a voter fraud case in the 1980s was a discriminatory act of voter intimidation.

If such a political act moves the needle slightly closer to a “no” vote, it will have been a necessary endeavor for the establishment left. But it will be just one more of its shameful acts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The Star Witness On Sessions’ ‘Racism’ Has Deeply Troubled History


waving flagAuthored by Photo of Kevin Daley Kevin Daley / Legal Affairs Reporter / 01/10/2017

URL of the original posting site: http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/10/the-star-witness-on-sessions-racism-has-deeply-troubled-history/

Thomas Figures, an assistant U.S. attorney whose accusations of racial bias torpedoed Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to the federal bench in 1986, had a history of erratic and disturbed behavior, colleagues and estranged family say.More Evidence

New sworn statements obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation given by former colleagues allege Figures, who died in 2015, was a paranoid figure who, among other things, believed “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather was communicating with him through his television. An office loner with a flair for confrontation, Figures was later indicted by federal authorities for attempting to bribe a witness.

30 years later, his testimony continues to shape press coverage of Sessions’ nomination to serve as attorney general in the Trump administration.typical

The Star Witness

A Democrat who joined the U.S. attorney’s office during the Jimmy Carter administration, Figures was the first black man to serve as a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Ala. Though a stalwart of local Democratic politics — he was vice chair of the Mobile County Democratic Conference and his brother was a state senator — Figures chose to remain on the staff of the district’s new conservative U.S. attorney, one Jeff Sessions, following the election of former President Ronald Reagan. The pair worked together for five years.

Sessions and Figures would part ways, if only for a moment, in 1985. One year later, Sessions was preparing for the exchange of platitudes typical of a committee hearing for a district judgeship, when Figures scuttled his nomination with crippling allegations of racist sympathies.

Invited by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to give testimony to his character, Figures alleged Sessions regularly called him “boy” in private and admonished him to watch his mouth around the office’s white employees. His allegations were not corroborated by any member of Sessions’ staff. He also falsely claimed that Sessions ordered him to close his investigation of the lynching of a young black man named Michael Donald. Democrats on the panel peppered Sessions with biting questions and comments in the ensuing days. (RELATED: Leading Democrats Liked Jeff Sessions Before They Hated Him)

“Mr. Sessions is a throwback to a shameful era, which I know both black and white Americans thought was in our past,” Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy said during the proceedings. “It is inconceivable to me that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a U.S. attorney, let alone a U.S. federal judge.”more-words

Figures was one of two witnesses who expressed concerns about Sessions’ racial politics. The other witness, a civil rights attorney named J. Gerald Hebert, testified that Sessions had made disparaging remarks about the ACLU and the NAACP. He went on to tell the committee he did not believe Sessions to be a racist.

Sessions’ appointment floundered, and the White House withdrew the nomination on July 31.

A Paranoid Streak

Federal investigators and former colleagues say Figures routinely displayed a pattern of erratic and paranoid behavior.

TheDCNF exclusively obtained an affidavit Monday given by former FBI special agent John Brennan, who worked with Figures while he was a federal prosecutor, that claims Figures often made strange claims. In the sworn statement, Brennan says Figures once told him he believed CBS News anchor Dan Rather was signaling to him during his nightly news broadcasts, and relaying information he wanted Figures to use.

“Mr. Figures told me that CBS News anchor Dan Rather and other news anchors would glance off camera and were signaled when he was watching television,” Brennan’s affidavit reads. “Mr. Figures claimed that, once signaled, Mr. Rather, or the other news anchors, would speak directly to him from the television and tell him things they wanted him to do or would give him information they wanted him to have.”

On another occasion, Figures allegedly told Brennan he believed his home was bugged and asked him to execute a search of the house. The ensuing search did not turn up listening devices. In a related instance, Brennan says Figures told him he terminated a road trip from Mobile, Ala. to Dallas, Texas because he believed a truck with a satellite antennae was following him.More Evidence

Brennan’s statements correspond to a second affidavit obtained by TheDCNF given by Cheryl Crisona, an assistant U.S. attorney who worked with Figures from 1981 to 1985. Crisona alleges Figures was confrontational with colleagues, and often made a secretary she shared with him cry. The affidavit mirrors claims Figures’ ex-wife Janice made during divorce proceedings in 1991. (RELATED: Democrats Face Uphill Battle Blocking Sessions)

Crisona says Figures was suspicious of group conversations in the office, for fear he was the subject of discussion. “He was very paranoid about any group in the office talking, always assuming that we were talking about him,” the affidavit reads. “In a nutshell, every one of us in that office was afraid of Thomas Figures,” she added.What did you say 04.jpg

 

Figures Indicted

Six years later in 1992, Figures was indicted by federal prosecutors for attempting to bribe a convicted drug dealer.

The kingpin, John Christopher, was preparing to take the stand against Figures’ client, Noble Beasley, who was accused of attempting to distribute 11 pounds of crack cocaine. A letter written by Christopher’s lawyer, Joseph Kulakowski, that was obtained by TheDCNF, claims Figures presented himself as Christopher’s lawyer in the docket room of a county jail and gained access to Christopher in a private meeting room. During that meeting, federal authorities alleged Figures offered Christopher $50,000 not to testify against his client.

At trial, when confronted with recordings of his meeting at the county jail, Figures testified that he was attempting to lure Christopher into a criminal scheme so he could report him for attempted bribery. He was acquitted of all charges, though Beasley would go on to serve a life sentence.

Figures has since died, further calcifying a legacy of strained race relations. Accounts of Figures’ testimony have appeared, without reference to his dubious credibility, on CNN and CBS broadcasts, as well as in print through the Associated Press, Vanity Fair, and The Daily Beast, among others.It is a matter of public record that Sessions supported the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the Defense of Marriage Act, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which invalidated key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. However, remarks Sessions is alleged to have made behind closed doors, while widely disseminated in media, appear to rest on increasingly untenable grounds.

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Sessions pledges to recuse himself from Clinton investigations


waving flagAuthored

Sessions pledges to recuse himself from Clinton investigations / © Greg Nash

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Tuesday he would recuse himself from any possible investigations related to Hillary Clinton if he is confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump‘s attorney general.

Sessions said during a confirmation hearing the politically charged comments he made about the Clintons during the presidential campaign would give the appearance he is not impartial in potential probes of the private email server she used while secretary of State or of the Clinton Foundation.

“I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question,” Sessions told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “I believe the proper thing for me to do would be for me to recuse myself.”

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Republicans in Congress have vowed to continue an investigation into Clinton’s private email setup.republicans-not-democratsSessions’s comments are designed to assuage critics who believe the Justice Department could be politicized under Trump. The Alabama senator was a vocal campaign supporter of Trump, who suggested that Clinton should be imprisoned for her private email setup.

Sessions said he would refuse an order from the president to name a special prosecutor to go after Clinton, a move Trump called for during the campaign. “I believe that would be the best approach for the country because we can never have a political dispute turn into a criminal dispute,” Sessions said. “This country does not punish its political enemies. What this country ensures [is] that no one is above the law.”republicans-not-democrats

But it’s unclear whether Trump wants to continue with such a probe as president. If an investigation does go forward, it would likely be overseen by Sessions’s deputy if he is confirmed.

Law enforcement sees Sessions as ‘police-first’ AG


waving flagAuthored

URL of the original posting site: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/313337-law-enforcement-see-sessions-as-police-first-ag-pick

Police and law enforcement officials are backing Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as Donald Trump‘s pick to lead the Department of Justice. Law enforcement groups view Sessions as someone who will bring a “police-first” mentality to Justice that they say was absent during President Obama’s eight years in office.  In Sessions, they see a traditional law-and-order style enforcer who they believe will repair the relationship between the feds and local police that has grown frosty in the Obama administration.

Sessions is backed by key figures from within several prominent police groups, including the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the nation’s largest police union; the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association; the National Association of Police Organizations; and the National Sheriffs Association.

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“We have about a 20-year relationship with Jeff Sessions from his time in the Senate on the Judiciary Committee and our members in Alabama who worked with him, both as state attorney general and a U.S. attorney, and the best way to sum it up is that we don’t have anything bad to say about Jeff Sessions,” FOP executive director Jim Pasco told The Hill.

“He has extraordinary insight into the demands and stresses of a police officer’s life and also has a real reverence for the rule of law. It sounds corny but it’s true, and that’s what our members pray for in a prosecutor.”

Obama’s attorneys general, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, prioritized investigations into police practices,

call-911

Image added by WhatDidYouSay.org

particularly in minority communities. That focus and growing nationwide attention to potential police abuses led to several high-profile Justice Department investigations into police departments in Cleveland, Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere.  Some law enforcement officials believe those investigations have produced onerous new restrictions and an intrusive level of oversight that they say has stripped the police of their ability to react instinctively to potentially dangerous encounters.

And they say public criticism and the intense focus from Obama’s White House and the Justice Department have undermined law enforcement authority at the local level by demonizing police.  Those tensions exploded into the open just months into the Obama administration in July 2009, when police Sgt. James Crowley, who is white, arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home for “disorderly conduct” after responding to a call about an alleged break-in.  That incident sparked a national debate on race, which Obama inflamed after saying the police officer had “acted stupidly.”

The president later backed away from those remarks, saying that both men could have responded differently to calm the situation. Obama eventually held a “beer summit” with Crowley and Gates at the White House, but the incident badly damaged his standing in the eyes of the police groups.

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Image added by WhatDidYouSay.org

Law enforcement officials are optimistic there will be fewer explosive incidents like that under a Sessions Justice Department.  “Sessions presumes that law enforcement officials in the main are good folks,” said Bill Barr, an attorney general under President George H.W. Bush. “He’s not going to be afraid to go after rogue cops. But he’s also not looking to undermine police authority and effectiveness because he doesn’t work from the assumption that the police are inherently bad. That will be a break from the Obama years.”

Police are also hopeful that Sessions will levy fewer “consent decrees” — arrangements between the Justice Department and a city that stipulate new methods police must use to address DOJ investigations into their practices. Consent decrees also involve the placing of federal monitors inside the police departments to ensure compliance. Law enforcement officials believe that the moves, while well intentioned, lead to bad outcomes. They say the administration’s interest in local law enforcement means police officers go into the field feeling constrained or fearful that their next encounter could make them the target of a civil rights lawsuit.

They point to Seattle as a case study in “over-enforcement” gone wrong. The city has seen an uptick in violent crime in the wake of a DOJ investigation there that produced a massive overhaul in how the city is policed. The Justice Department concluded its investigation into Seattle’s police department in late 2011. Crime levels spiked in 2013 and have remained above 2012 levels in the years since, according to the Seattle Police Department.“The question is, have these DOJ practices improved safety in the areas where they’ve gone after the police departments? The answer is no,” said former attorney general Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W. Bush.  “There have been something like 20 or 25 different investigations into police departments across the country, usually with unhappy results. You see a place like Seattle, which gets federal oversight and then you see crime go through the roof. It’s an intrusion and in a lot of these instances, the police don’t have the resources or inclination to push back.”

Pasco, the FOP executive director, went further.  “Early on, particularly during Obama’s first four yeas supportwhen [now-Labor Secretary] Tom Perez was the assistant attorney general for civil rights, there was a virtual jihad against police departments and practices,” Pasco said.  “They imposed these unreasonable and draconian consent decrees to address real or perceived violations and the quote ‘remedies’ only exacerbated the rift with police. The bottom line is when Justice investigates, it’s supposed to produce a better result or product and improve the situation. Instead it seems to have exacerbated the problems and doomed some of these communities to failure.”

Still, Pasco funneled most of his anger at Perez, who is presently running to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee, rather than the Obama administration as a whole.

Not everyone in law enforcement has such a critical reading of the Obama administration’s legacy. Most are just eager to turn the page and see the relationship between police and the Justice Department start over.  “You can’t in all fairness say that Obama is anti-police,” said Larry Thompson, a former deputy attorney general under George W. Bush. “If you read his statements, they’re not anti-police. But I do think the department and the administration have been too quick to point an accusatory finger at the police when these incidents have happened. Whether that’s accurate, it’s a perception you have to deal with and I think it will change under Sessions.” 

Donald Trump Hires Top Aide To Jeff Sessions To Help With Policy


waving flagReported by Photo of Alex Pappas Alex Pappas, Political Reporter,  01/26/2016

Donald Trump has hired a top aide to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (AL – R) for his presidential campaign, a sign that the Republican front-runner would continue focusing on the issue of immigration in a general election. Before accepting the job as a senior policy adviser to Trump, Stephen Miller served as communications director for Sessions. He announced his hiring in an email to friends and colleagues.

The Alabama senator advised Trump on immigration as the candidate developed a policy paper on the subject. Trump also held a rally last year in Sessions’ hometown of Mobile, Ala., where the senator took the stage and briefly donned a “Make America Great Again” hat.

Sessions has not yet endorsed anyone in the race.

“I’M IN HEAVEN!” conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeted in response to Miller’s hiring after it was reported by The Washington Post.

“He’s not backing down on immigration,” Coulter, who holds similar views on the topic as Sessions, said of Trump.

More than 30 Immigrants Admitted to the U.S. Recently Implicated in Terrorism


waving flagby Caroline May 15 Dec 2015

Sessions, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, and other conservative lawmakers have warned against passing a spending bill that does not place limitations on admissions — in particular refugee admission — to the U.S.

“Congress must cancel the President’s blank refugee check and put Congress back in charge of the program. We cannot allow the President to unilaterally decide how many refugees he wishes to admit, nor continue to force taxpayers to pick up the tab for the tens of billions of unpaid-for welfare and entitlement costs,” Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations subcommittee, said in a joint statement last week.

The pair added that passing the spending deal without limiting language “would put the U.S. on a path to approve admission for hundreds of thousands of migrants from a broad range of countries with jihadists movements over the next 12 months, on top of all the other autopilot annual immigration – absent language to reduce the numbers.”

The Sessions aide noted that the 30 examples are listed represented just a “partial” inventory of recently implicated terrorist migrants.Do you want

Read the list:

-A refugee from Uzbekistan was convicted of providing material support and money to a designated foreign terrorist organization. According to the Department of Justice, he also procured bomb-making materials in the interest of perpetrating a terrorist attack on American soil. (August 2015)

-An immigrant from Albania, who applied for and received Lawful Permanent Resident status, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for giving over $1,000 to terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, and for attempting to join a radical jihadist insurgent group in Pakistan. (August 2015)

-An immigrant from Egypt, who subsequently was granted U.S. citizenship, was charged with providing, and conspiring to provide, material support to ISIS, for aiding and abetting a New York college student in receiving terrorist training from ISIS, and conspiring to receive such training. (August 2015)

-An immigrant from India, who applied for and received Lawful Permanent Resident status by virtue of his marriage to an American citizen, was indicted in federal court on charges of conspiring to provide thousands of dollars to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in order to assist them in their global jihad, and on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. (November 2015)

-A second immigrant from India, who is married to a U.S. citizen, and who is the brother of the individual listed above, was also indicted on charges of conspiring to provide thousands of dollars to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in order to assist them in their global jihad, and on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. (November 2015)

-An immigrant from Pakistan, who entered the United States on a fiancé visa, and subsequently became a Lawful Permanent Resident, along with her husband, killed 14 people at a Christmas party, and wounded two dozen, in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. (December 2015)

-The son of Pakistani immigrants, along with his Pakistan bride, murdered 14 coworkers, and wounded two dozen, in that same terrorist attack.  His Pakistani-born father has since been placed on the no-fly list.

-An immigrant from Syria, who applied for and received Lawful Permanent Resident status, and then subsequently applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was charged with smuggling night-vision goggles and rifle scopes from America to a Syrian rebel group that fights alongside and allies itself with an al-Qaeda affiliate. (December 2015)

-A Somali-American was arrested after encouraging several friends to leave the United States and join ISIS, and giving one individual over $200 for their passport application. (December 2015)

-An immigrant from Bangladesh, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, tried to incite people to travel  to Somalia and conduct violent jihad against the United States. (June 2014)

-An immigrant from Ghana, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, pledged allegiance to ISIS and plotted a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. (June 2015)

-An immigrant from Sudan, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, tried to join ISIS and wage jihad on its behalf after having been recruited online. (June 2015)

-A Bosnian refugee, along with his wife and five others, donated money and supplies, and smuggled arms, to terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq. (February 2015)

-An immigrant from Yemen, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, along with six other men, was charged with conspiracy to travel to Syria and to provide material support to ISIS. (April 2015)

-A Somali immigrant with lawful permanent resident status, along with four other Somali nationals, is charged with leading an al-Shabaab fundraising conspiracy in the United States, with monthly payments directed to the Somali terrorist organization. (July 2014)

– A Kazakhstani immigrant with lawful permanent resident status conspired to purchase a machine gun to shoot FBI and other law enforcement agents if they prevented him from traveling to Syria to join ISIS. (February 2015)

-An immigrant from Saudi Arabia, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, swore allegiance to ISIS and pledged to explode a propane tank bomb on U.S. soil. (April 2015)

-A Uzbek man in Brooklyn encouraged other Uzbeki nationals to wage jihad on behalf of ISIS, and raised $1,600 for the terror organization. (April 2015)

-The Boston Bombers were granted political asylum and were thus deemed legitimate refugees. The younger brother applied for citizenship and was naturalized on September 11th, 2012. The older brother had a pending application for citizenship. (April 2013)

-A Moroccan national who came to the U.S. on a student visa was arrested for plotting to blow up a university and a federal court house. (April 2014)

– Numerous of Minnesota’s Somali-American refugee community have recently been charged with trying to join ISIS. The Washington Times reported that “the effort [to resettle large groups of Somali refugees in Minnesota] is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state’s safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups.” (February 2015)

-An Uzbek refugee living in Idaho was arrested and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization, in the form of teaching terror recruits how to build bombs. (July 2015)

-An American citizen whose family is from Syria was sentenced for plotting to support ISIS and rob a gun store to kill members of the American military. (April 2015)An immigrant from Syria, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was accused by federal prosecutors of planning to “go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style.” (April 2015)

-A college student who immigrated from Somalia, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, attempted to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon. (October 2014)

-An immigrant from Afghanistan, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, and a legal permanent resident from the Philippines, were convicted for “join Al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill Americans.” (September 2014)

-An Iraqi immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for lying to federal agents about pledging allegiance to ISIS and his travels to Syria. (May 2015)

-Two immigrants from Pakistan, who later applied for and received U.S citizenship, were sentenced to decades-long prison sentences for plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City. (2012)

-An immigrant from Yemen, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for trying to join ISIS. He was also charged with attempting to illegally buy firearms to try to shoot American military personnel. (September 2014)

-An immigrant brought here by his family from Kuwait at a young age, and who was later approved for U.S. citizenship, carried out the Islamist attack that recently killed 4 military personnel in Chattanooga. (July 2015)

America are you really paying attention In God We Trust freedom combo 2

Senators Want Answers: 121 Illegal Immigrants Avoid Deportation, Now Charged With Murder


Reported by Diana Stancy / / June 15, 2015

(Photo:Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/ Newscom)

More than 100 convicted criminals who remained in the U.S. despite receiving deportation orders between 2010 and 2014 now face murder charges, according to the agency charged with carrying out such deportations of illegal immigrants. U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement reports that 121 convicted criminals who were never removed from the country face murder charges today.

In response, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., of the Judiciary Committee submitted a letter on June 12 requesting a “multi-departmental response” from Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. In their letter, Grassley and Sessions cite Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics that show 1,000 of the 36,007 criminally-convicted illegal immigrants released from custody in fiscal year 2013 have been reconvicted of additional crimes.

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The senators wrote that the murders committed by the 121 convicted criminals “could have been avoided” had they not been released. As a result, Grassley and Sessions are requesting an explanation from the Obama administration officials concerning the government’s decision to release the convicted criminals before deportation.Only Reason

The senators also ask for information concerning the future of U.S. initiatives to deport convicted criminals and whether immigration officials are “fully leveraging existing tools and resources to prevent these dangerous outcomes.” However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana wrote in a recent letter that convicted criminals may be released, even if the convicted individuals face deportation charges. In fact, the agency states some individuals who face deportation charges are not required to be detained by law.Why

This primarily manifests itself though the Supreme Court’s ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis, which requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release those who are being detained if the deportation does not occur within 180 days. Of the 121 convicted criminals, 24 were released because Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not deport the criminals within 180 days, as lawfully required.just-stop-300x200

Additionally, Grassley and Sessions’ letter claims that the majority of convicted criminals released due to the Zadvydas v. Davis ruling are from one of 12 countries. Nearly one-third of these criminals are originally from Cuba. Grassley and Sessions requested a statement from Kerry to delineate actions planned to “incentivize cooperation” with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s removal efforts. Both senators also requested a response from Johnson asking if initiatives including the visa waiver program had been implemented in order to “promote compliance with ICE removal efforts among recalcitrant countries.”Really with logo freedom combo 2

Odds Are Obamatrade Screws America


waving flagTranscript from the Rush Limbaugh Show, May 22, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/05/22/odds_are_obamatrade_screws_america

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’re gonna start in West Palm Beach in Florida.  This is Joel.  I’m glad you called, sir.  Great to have you with us.  Hello.

CALLER:  Hey, Rush, I grew up listening to you with my dad.  I really appreciate you taking my call.  Great honor.

RUSH:  Why thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER:  So anyways, I read a quote earlier from Elizabeth Warren about this transpacific pact, and she was making fun of the Obama administration for saying if we knew what was in it we wouldn’t want to pass it. And she said that is not how a democracy works.  I think that sounds pretty similar to how they did Obamacare, doesn’t it?

RUSH:  Yeah, it is.  That’s a good catch on your part, Joel.  I can tell that you are a lifetime, lifelong listener.  Great, great catch.

CALLER:  Thank you, sir.  Thank you for taking the time today.

RUSH:  Well, you should feel very proud, you should feel very proud.  Elizabeth Warren did say something along the lines of “we’re gonna have to pass it to find out what’s in it.”  Which is exactly what Pelosi said about Obamacare, we gotta pass it to know what’s in it.  Now, the interesting thing about this Obama trade is the Democrats hate it.  The Democrats hate it because they think that it does great damage to unions, is the primary reason they hate it.

They also hate it because the Republicans are providing the necessary push to get it passed, which kind of bothers me.  Since it’s an Obama deal, the odds are it isn’t good.  Since it’s an Obama deal, the odds are the United States is gonna take it in the shorts, as we have on so much of the Obama agenda, both domestic and foreign policy.  One of the things, and there are many — and by the way, it hasn’t changed.  They would not allow any of this deal to be paid made public.  Members of Congress, House and Senate, had to go to a private room to read it.  They weren’t allowed to take any notes.  Well, they could take notes.  They couldn’t leave with their notes.  They weren’t allowed to tell anybody what they read. Party of Deciet and lies

Jeff Sessions had a massive op-ed piece and floor speech in the Senate about this.  It’s a disaster, just on that basis alone.  It’s not how things happen in this country.  Cybercast News Service just posted a story that the trade deal, the Obama Pacific partner trade deal, whatever it’s called, will eliminate trade barriers with North Vietnam — well, Vietnam.  Vietnam is a communist Regime.  It’s running a $24.9 billion trade deficit with the US, and the transpacific partnership that Obama is negotiating with 11 other nations seeks to eliminate both tariff and nontariff trade barriers with these countries.

I’ll tell you, to understand this stuff, Obama said something when he normalized or began the process of normalizing relations with Cuba.  He said something to the effect that, if we’ve been doing things a certain way for 50 years and they’re not working, why, it’s time for a change.  Of course, that doesn’t apply to our own welfare state and failed Democrat policy after failed Democrat policy, but it is applicable when dealing with Iran, the Middle East, Israel and Palestine, and now dealing with foreign regimes who owe us money.  We’re just gonna wipe it out.  We’re gonna eliminate their debt all because the only reason they have the debt is because we’re such a mean superpower, and it’s up to us to make it up to them for being the way we have been.

RUSH:  There’s another reason the left, the Democrats, don’t like it.  They think that the Obama trade deal empowers evil corporations to sue things like the United Nations over EPA regulations and so.  They really hate it for that reason.

END TRANSCRIPTfreedom combo 2

Prisoner swap: Did Hillary know?


http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/207986-prisoner-swap-did-hillary-know#ixzz33c4HAuSi

 By Alexander Bolton 06/03/14 06:00 AM EDT

645X363 – No Companion – Full Sharing – Additional videos are suggested

Republicans are raising questions about whether Hillary Clinton knew about the White House plan to release senior Taliban commanders in exchange for the last U.S. prisoner of war.

President Obama met with his former secretary of State for lunch on Thursday, two days before it was announced that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been released from captivity in exchange for five high-profile Taliban prisoners.

Republicans are furious that they were not told of the deal in advance and argue that this broke U.S. law.

 obama cvlinton meetinmg

They are also suspicious Obama might have informed Clinton, the likely Democratic front-runner for the White House in 2016.

The White House has said it would not give a read out of Obama’s lunch with Clinton, calling it a private event.

But that has only made Republicans more curious about the timing between the lunch, and the controversial prisoner swap.

“If Mrs. Clinton remains politically active, people will want to know what her advice was on the subject,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Hillary ClintonSen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said questions about the meeting are fair game.

“It’s fair game to ask her, “Did she know about this, what does she think about it, does she agree with the decision to withdraw troops in 2016?” he said. “These are all really good questions potential candidates for president need to answer.’

“These are major policy decisions. This has ramifications long term for the U.S., this prisoner swap,” he added.

Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the National Security Council, declined to comment on the Obama-Clinton meeting.

“We’re not reading out their private lunch,” he said.

A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.  

Some Republicans said Monday that a congressional probe could seek to find out whether Obama told Clinton about the exchange.

“It appears that they consciously moved forward without notifying Congress over an extended period of time. Republicans think it’s fair for the White House to come clean about who was told what when, including former Secretary of State Clinton,” said a senior GOP aide.

The administration has said they had to keep the secret from Congress to preserve the Bergdahl’s safety, but that hasn’t satisfied Republicans.

Remember

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) has promised hearings. He said he was not alerted of the prisoner exchange until this past weekend and that this violates the National Defense Authorization Act, which required the administration give Congress 30 days advance notice.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has told Senate Republican colleagues that his panel will hold a closed-door hearing on the prisoner swap on June 10. Graham is pressing for a public hearing.

He also wants an independent probe into allegations Bergdahl deserted his post.

“I want a professional independent investigation by the appropriate military authorities with no interference by the Congress or the White House to find out what labels apply to Sgt. Bergdahl,” Graham said.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Monday that senior lawmakers were informed months ago that the administration was negotiating for Bergdahl.

BS WARNING BS ALERT

“We’ve been consulting with members of Congress about this effort, including the potential transfer of five Gitmo detainees, for years” he said. “So this should not have been a surprise to any of the members of Congress who’ve been … commenting about it.”

“Not according to the Republican House. Today they have said they were NOT informed. More Obama Whitehouse lies.” JB

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said critics should view Bergdahl’s release as a standard prisoner exchange instead of negotiating with terrorists, which the United States declines to do as a matter of policy.

He expressed hope it could lay the groundwork for a broader peace deal with the Taliban, one of Obama’s highest priorities in Afghanistan.

“Could this embolden terrorists? Again, I remind you this was a prisoner of war exchange. He was a prisoner,” Hagel told reporters in a briefing. “Maybe this could provide some possible new bridge for new negotiations.”

In 2011, Israel and Hamas announced a deal to swap 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who was held prisoner in Gaza for five years.

Is Hillary to blameClinton, then the secretary of State, praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his “courage and leadership” after winning Shalit’s freedom.

Peace talks with the Taliban broke off in 2012, after the United States rebuffed demands to free senior militants, which Taliban leaders said showed a lack of seriousness from American negotiators.

The exchange in Bergdahl’s case has also been controversial because of charges that he deserted his duties in walking off base before his capture.

Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl’s platoon, told CNN Bergdahl was captured after going absent without leave.

“Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him,” he said.

Other members of Bergdahl’s platoon have corroborated that account.

Administration officials say they want to give Bergdahl time to recover from his captivity before delving into the circumstances of his capture. But national security adviser Susan Rice rebutted charges he was a deserter during a Sunday interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Certainly, anybody who has been held in those conditions, in captivity for five years has paid an extraordinary price. But that is really not the point. The point is that he is back,” she said.

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