Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Not yet: Al Franken says report he is quitting the Senate is premature

Political Cartoons by Jerry Holbert

Jewish Telegraphic Agency  "Sen. Al Franken denied a report that he had decided to quit the Senate after a seventh woman alleged sexual misconduct and half the body’s Democratic caucus said he should go.
"Minnesota Public Radio quoted an official who had spoken to Franken as saying he would quit on Thursday, but Franken denied it on Twitter.
“No final decision has been made and the Senator is still talking with his family,” Franken’s Twitter account said late Wednesday. “Please update your story.” . . .
Political Cartoons by Jerry Holbert

Green’s Impeachment Resolution Rejected by House

Free Beacon   "Rep. Al Green's (D., Texas) resolution calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment was rejected by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. 

"A bipartisan 364 members voted to table Green's motion while 58 Democrats voted to move forward, Fox News reports
"Wednesday's vote was not an actual vote on whether to impeach the president, but a procedural one that could have ultimately led to an impeachment vote.
"Green, who has been a vocal critic of Trump, sent a memo to his colleagues prior to the vote.
" 'As I have said before, this is not about Democrats, it is about democracy," Green wrote. "It is not about Republicans, it is about the fate of our Republic. May everyone vote their conscience knowing that history will judge us all."
"Friends, whether we like it or not, we now have a bigot in the White House who incites hatred and hostility," Green wrote.
"The Texas Democrat initially introduced the resolution of articles of impeachment in October and spoke at length about Trump being unfit and deserving of removal from office.
"Democratic leaders have not supported the push to impeach Trump in fear it will make things difficult for the party as they go into the 2018 midterm elections."
There are really two ways to look at this effort.  "One is that this attempt to impeach President Trump got slapped down hard today. The other is that there are now 58 Democrats willing to attach their names to this desperate action which their own leadership is officially against, at least for the moment. In either case, Rep. Al Green promised yesterday he would bring this to a vote and today he made good on that promise. The result was a bust.

Cartoon UPDATE! There's a Hillary Clinton Tree Topper for Those Still Sour About the Election — Really

UPDATE: Photosnark by Rich Terrell
The Declaration  "The so-called “Resistance” is going to an entirely new level — a Christmas level, to be specific.

"A UK-based company, Women To Look Up To, is selling 3D-sculpted Christmas tree toppers resembling former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for those who are still bitter over the results of the 2016 presidential election.

"The ornament, which is roughly $107, is intended to replace the traditional angelic being on top of the Christmas tree and has been dubbed the symbol of “Resistmas.” It’s earning quite a bit of attention on social media:
. . . 


"Not getting what you want for Christmas? Don't worry, this Hillary tree topper has an excuse for it! It will blame: Misogyny Racism Homophobia Islamaphobia James Comey Russia Bernie Sanders Wikileaks Deplorable elves and so much more...[sic]
To wit:
"It will blame:Misogyny RacismHomophobiaIslamaphobiaJames ComeyRussiaBernie SandersWikileaksDeplorable elvesand so much more..."

Hat tip to TimRunsHisMouth

Fmr. Conyers Intern: The Congressman Invoked Murdered Intern Chandra Levy When I Wouldn’t Sleep With Him


Weaseel Zippers photo
Free Beacon  "A former intern for outgoing Rep. John Conyers says the Michigan Democrat propositioned her, and when she rebuffed his advances, he brought up a Washington, D.C. intern who had mysteriously disappeared.

"Courtney Morse, now 36, told the Washington Post she was a 20-year-old student when she accepted an internship with Conyers' office. One night, he offered to drive her home, and once they arrived, he "wrapped his hand around hers as it rested in her lap, and told her he was interested in a sexual relationship."

"Morse reports that when she declined, Conyers suddenly brought up a then-unsolved disappearance of federal intern Chandra Levy. At the time, police believed Levy's disappearance may have been tied to an affair with Democratic Rep. Gary Condit. Condit was ultimately cleared after authorities charged a suspect with the intern's murder.

" 'He said he had insider information on the case. I don't know if he meant it to be threatening, but I took it that way," she told the Post. "I got out of the car and ran."

"Matthew Salomon, a member of the family Levy was staying with at the time, backed up Morse's version of events. He told the Post he approached Conyer's car to confront him, but the congressman drove away.

"Conyers announced his immediate retirement Tuesday after the reemergence of multiple accusations of sexual harassment from former staffers. In his speech, Conyers insisted his "legacy can't be compromised or diminished in any way.' "

ABC News' Brian Ross will not cover stories involving Trump, network says

Political Cartoons by Tom Stiglich

CBS News  "ABC News reporter Brian Ross, who is currently suspended without pay, will no longer cover stories involving President Trump following his erroneous report last Friday about former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The network confirmed Tuesday the order by ABC News President James Goldston.

"Goldston expressed his anger over the error on an internal phone call to staff that was leaked to CNN. ABC declined a request by the Associated Press to make Goldston available for an interview Tuesday.
"Ross was suspended for four weeks without pay over the weekend. He had reported incorrectly that Mr. Trump, when he was still a candidate for president, had told Flynn to make contact with the Russians. That would have been a big development in the ongoing investigation over whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to influence the election." . . .
Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy
"ABC’s Brian Ross’ report that Trump met with Russians during the election Friday crashed the stock market for an hour before it was refuted as bogus. He’s suspended. Now every TV reporter knows he can make millions by selling short and then reporting that Trump’s in real trouble this time."  Comedian Argus Hamilton
Holly Jolly Hypocrisy
Tony Branco


Remember this Brian Ross story from 2012? This morning, on ABC, reporter Brian Ross suggested the Colorado movie theater shooter might be a Tea Party member:
 "An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted."

Despite What the Left Says, Masterpiece Cakeshop is About Much More than Gay Discrimination

LawNewz


. . . "If you read this morning’s column by my colleague Elura Nanos and nothing else, you might think that Phillips is a horrible bigot who refuses to sell any of his baked goods to gay people. You might also think that there’s no reason why this case should have gotten to the Supreme Court in the first place, because obviously religious people are evil and it’s impossible to hold good faith beliefs that aren’t a guise for expressing hatred.
"Of course, none of this is true.
"Phillips has gone on record saying that he doesn’t judge anybody for how they live their lives. He just doesn’t see why he needs to be a part of it. He has said that if Craig and Mullins wanted to buy anything else from his shop, he would have been happy to sell it to them. Phillips just didn’t feel like he should have to create something for an occasion that he doesn’t want to be a part of, as it conflicts with his personal religious principles. Historically, marriage has been a religious institution, as is recognized by the authority this country gives to clergy members to officiate them. If a straight person had asked Phillips for a cake for a gay wedding, I’d imagine he’d refuse, because for Phillips, it’s not about the identity or sexual orientation of the customer, but the nature of the work." . . .

The Christian baker vs the Christophobic left

"The reality is that when leftists, including those on the Supreme Court, write about liberties they are actually thinking only of liberties that they endorse.  For example, the same leftists who scream that pornography is protected by the First Amendment tell us that peacefully trying to change a woman’s mind as she enters an abortion clinic is not protected by the First Amendment"
The Gay Marriage Ruling Supports the Baker   . . . "The Court has used similar language in previous decisions, including this quotefrom an abortion decision:
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life
"The intent of both of these quotes was to declare that the individual’s right to define who they are and what they believe overrides cultural norms and the democratic process, in the case of gay marriage, and science, in the case of abortion.
"Such a belief, that we can define reality rather than recognize it, is a symptom of the elites’ abandonment of both God and science. Both statements only make sense if one assumes that the autonomous individual has the power to actually create their own reality; something that sane people know is impossible. While we have freedom to react to reality we cannot warp it to our wills.  Men can castrate themselves and wear makeup, but they cannot become women because their DNA does not change for example." . . .
The fascist nature of rulings by lower courts demanding that people deny their faith and offer sacrifices to leftist dogma is clear. In all cases, the gay people being “married” had absolutely no problem finding alternative sources for their “wedding” needs. Yet the lower courts have ruled that gay’s right to pick who they want to serve them overrides the First Amendment rights of those whose “…personal identity and belief” prevent them from supporting gay “weddings.”

Clarence Thomas facepalm: Oral arguments for Masterpiece Cakeshop
. . . "Justice Kennedy spoke to clarify the position set forth in his opinion inObergefell v. Hodges, where the justice not only voted to legally redefine the nation's understanding of marriage, but wrote the 5-4 majority opinion.  Yesterday, however, Justice Kennedy questioned if a Christian person, who serves all sexual orientations and holds no animus whatsoever against people who characterize
themselves by their attraction to members of the same sex, but who cannot create a cake or cooperate with two men or two women attempting to marry due to his sincerely held religious beliefs, can escape persecution from the state.
"After observing the oral arguments, I believe that there are four votes yes (Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Roberts) and four votes no (Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Ginsburg, and Breyer).  I am hoping for the sake of the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment that Justice Kennedy casts the last "yes" vote in the case to tilt the scales in favor of something that Jack Phillips has not experienced in our judicial system – namely, tolerance."
Bakery vs. bakeshop  . . . "Now, Phillips said that he would sell any of his premade cakes to anyone without restriction.  In this he was acting as a public accommodation.  But, he said, he will not create a cake that violates his religious principles.  That, he claimed, is his First Amendment right.  Thus, the battle lines were drawn, and the case proceeded up to the Supreme Court." . . .

Naturally there is at least one left-wing site calling the baker a "homophobic bigot".

Latest revelations make the entire ‘collusion’ probe look like a partisan hit

NY Post  "So Peter Strzok wasn’t just a top investigator for special counsel Robert Mueller until he was axed for anti-Trump and pro-Clinton bias: He was also a major player in the Hillary email probe and the FBI work that led to the “collusion” investigation.
"And Mueller and the FBI both dragged their feet on sharing key info about all this with Congress.
"Including the news that Strzok was the one who c
hanged then-FBI chief Jim Comey’s draft language on Clinton’s use of that private server from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” in the final version.
"That’s huge, because the statute specifies that gross negligence in the handling of classified info is itself a crime, whatever the intent — though Comey declared that Clinton shouldn’t face prosecution precisely because she had no “intent” to break the law.
"Strzok also conducted the FBI interviews of Clinton and her top aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, in the email probe.
"More, he was reportedly one of the major FBI figures urging investigations on the basis of the “Steele dossier” of Russian-sourced scurrilous anti-Trump allegations, which we now know was commissioned by the Clinton campaign.
"More, he signed the documents that opened the ensuing “collusion” probe. And he led the FBI interview of Gen. Mike Flynn, in which Flynn told the lies that eventually forced him out as Trump’s national security adviser, and for which he’s now pleaded guilty in a deal with Mueller.
"Meanwhile, Mills and Abedin’s testimony in their interviews has been shown false in one major regard: Contrary to their denials, each had been well aware of Clinton’s private server — they had to deal with the office fallout whenever it went down. Unlike Flynn, though, they never faced charges for lying to federal investigators.
"Which makes President Trump’s request to Comey to go easy on Flynn look reasonable enough.
"The public doesn’t know just how egregious Strzok’s bias was, and won’t until the release of his texts with his mistress, an FBI lawyer who (sigh) was also on Mueller’s team.
"But as things stand, it now looks like the fix was well and truly in on the Hillary probe. Far worse, it also looks like the “collusion” probe was a partisan hit from the start — which undermines the basis for Mueller’s own investigation." . . .

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Nancy Pelosi: Republican Tax Reform is the “End of the World” and “Armageddon”

Legal Insurrection


"After Republicans in the Senate passed a Tax Reform bill in the early hours of Saturday, December 2, there was a collective liberal freak out.


"Nancy Pelosi outdid them all in a press conference:
“It is the end of the world. The debate on health care is life/death. This is Armageddon. This is a very big deal.”
. . .
Legal Insurrection: What does the GOP tax overhaul mean for you?

Plug in your numbers to Find what the GOP tax plans mean for YOU



Bristol Gives Names of Celebrities Who Sexually Harassed Palin Women, Points Out Biggest Problem

These ladies have suffered more than the usual share of sexual insults. TD

The Palin women are in good company: Chelsea Handler Calls Sarah Huckabee Sanders A 'Harlot' With 'Summer-Whore Lipstick', 'Trollop'

Joe Setyon   "Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, watched as recent accusations of sexual misconduct ended the careers of high-profile figures in media, entertainment and politics.
"She kept up with the #MeToo movement, where countless women have taken to social media to say that they too are victims of sexual harassment, assault and even rape. 
"Now, she has decided to speak out.
"While Palin wrote in a blog post published Friday that she was “truly amazed by the unity that has been brought on by these courageous women (and men),” she noted that there is one thing “wrong” with the #MeToo campaign.
"The media, Palin claimed, has a double standard when it comes to reporting on allegations of sexual harassment.
“ 'What we need to look at is a real TRUE standard that needs to be set,” she wrote. “But here’s a question. How do we pick and choose whom to hold accountable? Why aren’t we looking at all of the sexual harassment? Why are some things ‘just a joke’ for some, and serious offenses for others?”
"Palin asserted that it’s time “to come together and treat sexual harassment the same, no matter what side of the aisle you may be on.' ” . . .

House Republicans Prepare Contempt Action Against FBI, DOJ



Democrat Castro's position on issues

"U.S. House Republicans are drafting a contempt of Congress resolution against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, claiming stonewalling in producing material related to the Russia-Trump probes and other matters.
"Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and other committee Republicans, after considering such action for several weeks, decided to move after media including the New York Times reported Saturday on why a top FBI official assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia-Trump election collusion had been removed from the investigation. 
"Republicans, including the president, pointed to the reports as evidence that the entire probe into Russian meddling has been politically motivated.
“ 'Now it all starts to make sense,” Trump said on Twitter Sunday." . . .

The FBI today

"Mueller is a partisan hack to end all partisan hacks, and no sane observer believes otherwise. It was Mueller who got Bill Clinton out of trouble for selling missile launching secrets to China, secrets that may now be helping North Korea to aim nuclear-armed missiles at Washington DC and Paris."  James Lewis
See the source image

Mueller's FBI Will Never Recover Its Good Name  "Robert Mueller just fired a senior FBI agent for openly twittering against POTUS Trump. But if Mr. Mueller imagines that firing one guy will restore his shredded credibility to the public, fuggedaboudit. The unprecedented witch-hunt against a newly elected Donald Trump will remain green in the public memory for years to come. The FBI and DOJ will therefore have to live with a huge loss of public credibility. The IRS will never recover among Trump voters.
"Elected governments only work as long as they enjoy basic public confidence, and when that is gone -- as it is in Italy and Greece -- it can take many years to restore." . . .
In the last election the Communist Party of the USA openly backed Hillary Clinton, and Hillary never said a word against them. She wanted their support. 
. . . "Harvey Weinstein might as well try to prove his virginity. Mueller will never, ever regain the kind of respect we used to feel for the Department of Justice and the FBI. The IRS cannot be trusted, as taxpayers around the country know very well. Our presidential candidates like the Clintons have sold favors for money, and the Obama White House sold our national security to the throwback mullahs of Iran." . . .

Peter Strzok's role in Clinton email investigation takes a sinister turn  "Former FBI counter-intelligence expert Peter Strzok, . . . was the individual responsible for changing the wording in Director Comey's statement on Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information from "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless."
"That single change probably kept Hillary Clinton out of jail.
"It has also been revealed that Strzok was the FBI agent who interviewed both Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's two top aides.  Mills and Abedin made misleading statements to the FBI in that interview but went unpunished. 
"That a demonstrably partisan investigator has been at the center of an investigation that could lead to the impeachment of a president of the United States makes it impossible for Robert Mueller to claim that his investigation is unbiased and independent.
"First, Strzok giving Clinton a "get out of jail" edit to Comey's statement." . . .By Rick Moran
See the source image
By now it should be clear to every sentient American that the Mueller "investigation" is not an investigation at all
The "collusion with Russia" meme was and remains a non-starter, so now the real motive for Mueller's appointment as special counsel is evident for all to see.  It was always to find a way to remove Trump from office.  
See the source image
Tony Branco