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Thursday, April 10, 2014

A Fed-Up Eric Holder Goes After Congress: ‘Unprecedented, Unwarranted, Ugly and Divisive’ - ABC News

A Fed-Up Eric Holder Goes After Congress: ‘Unprecedented, Unwarranted, Ugly and Divisive’ - ABC News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
A fed-up Attorney General Eric Holder is accusing congressional critics of launching “unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive” attacks on him and the Obama administration.

During a speech to the National Action Network in New York on Wednesday lauding the organization’s effort to advance racial equality, a heated Holder went a little off-script.

“Forget about me [specifically]. Look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee,” Holder told the crowd. “What attorney general has ever had to deal with
that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”

The remarks drew loud applause from the crowd.

On Tuesday, while testifying before a House panel, Holder engaged in a testy back-and-forth with two of his most outspoken Republican antagonists. One accused Holder of violating federal law and questioned
whether he should even be allowed to testify before lawmakers, while Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, seemed to threaten Holder with another contempt citation and angrily told Holder he didn’t need to be lectured by the nation’s top law enforcement official.

On Wednesday, with a finger raised, Holder told the crowd in New York that his tenure as attorney general has been “defined by significant strides … even in the face of unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive adversity.”

The day before, after Gohmert ran out of time to ask questions, Holder leaned into the microphone in front of him and wished Gohmert “good luck with your asparagus.” It was a not-so-subtle dig at Gohmert’s flub last year when he warned Holder not to “cast aspersions on my asparagus.”

Holder has had a tense relationship with several Republican lawmakers since the Republican-led House held him in contempt of Congress two years ago for failing to turn over certain documents tied to the Fast and Furious scandal involving botched firearms sting operations despite a congressional subpoena seeking those documents.

In asking Holder on Tuesday about the Justice Department’s refusal to turn over documents in an unrelated terrorism case, Gohmert again raised the issue of contempt, saying, “I realize that contempt is not a big deal to our attorney general, but it is important that we have proper oversight.”

A visibly upset Holder, leaning back in his chair, shot back, “You don’t want to go there, buddy. You don’t want to go there, OK?”

“You should not assume that that is not a big deal to me,” Holder added, pointing a finger toward the congressman. “I think it was inappropriate. I think it was unjust. But never think that was not a big deal to me. Don’t ever think that.”

Gohmert pressed the issue.

“There have been no indications that it was a big deal, because your department has still not been forthcoming in producing the documents that were the subject of the contempt,” Gohmert said.

“I don’t need lectures from you about contempt,” Gohmert added.

“And I don’t need lectures from you either,” Holder responded.

The documents at issue were mostly from the months after the public first learned that an Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation called Fast and Furious put guns into the hands of criminals in Mexico. Republican lawmakers subpoenaed the Justice Department for internal emails dated after Feb. 4, 2011, when department officials realized they would have to retract a letter to Congress denying any such thing happened.

But President Obama then asserted executive privilege over the documents, and Republicans filed suit in federal court.

Holder’s “good luck with your asparagus” comment Tuesday was a reference to a remark by Gohmert at a hearing nearly a year ago. At that hearing, Gohmert and Holder got into another heated back-and-forth over how the FBI handled the case of alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been interviewed by the FBI years before the attack over possible radicalization.

Gohmert said he was “trying to determine how the FBI blew the opportunity to save people’s lives,” but Holder defended the FBI’s work, telling Gohmert, “You don’t know what the FBI did. You don’t know what the FBI’s interaction was with the Russians. You don’t know what questions were put to the Russians, whether those questions were responded to. You simply do not know that. And you have characterized the FBI as being not thorough or taken exception to my characterization of them as being thorough. I know what the FBI did. You cannot know what I know.”

In trying to get a chance to respond to Holder’s comments, a flustered Gohmert shot back, “[Do not] cast aspersions on my asparagus.”

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Jeb Bush's Immigration Heresy - WSJ.com

Jeb Bush's Immigration Heresy - WSJ.com
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
For a party that has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, the GOP sure seems eager to banish people from its potential candidate ranks. First Senator Marco Rubio was expelled from impolite conservative company, then Rep Paul Ryan came in for abuse, and now former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is being whipped for breaking from the anti-immigration orthodoxy on the right. In a Sunday interview Mr. Bush said the act of illegally entering America is sometimes "an act of love" done out of a commitment to feed and clothe family members.

This is merely another way of way of putting his brother George W. Bush's line from the 2000 campaign that "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande." You know the GOP's immigration allergy has become excessive when even expressions of sympathy are criticized.

Related Video: <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="512" height="288" src="http://live.wsj.com/public/page/embed-C9AC0019_1626_45B2_BC11_28DBD24E2615.html"></iframe>

Political Diary editor Jason Riley on whether former Florida Governor Jeb Bush will run for President in 2016.

Here's what Mr. Bush said in fuller context: "Someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come
legally, they come to our country because their families—the dad who loved their children was worried that their children didn't have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony." He's right about the non-felony, though Senator Ted Cruz immediately jumped in to say the rule of law matters. Thanks for clearing that one up, Senator, but Mr. Bush got there first, saying that one reason to pass immigration reform is to "restore people's confidence" in the law. "For example,

40% of illegal immigrants come with legal visas and they overstay their bounds. A great country ought to know where those folks are and politely ask them to leave," he said. "There are means by which we can control our border better than we have. And there should be penalties for breaking the law." Failure to reform immigration, he added, "ends up trapping these people when they could make a great contribution for their own families but also for us."
Mr. Bush urged everyone to drop "the harsh political rhetoric" and recognize that immigrants "can make a contribution to our country if we organize ourselves in a better way." Assimilation is essential to that

effort, he said, and should include teaching civics in public school and requiring English.

Not too long ago that would have been called Reagan orthodoxy. Mr. Bush says he'll decide on whether to run for President by the end of the year, but if he does run he's already got a better immigration message than the
self-defeating "self-deportation" crowd that cost the GOP so dearly in 2012.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Pro-Russia protesters in east Ukraine seize weapons: Interior Ministry - Yahoo News

Pro-Russia protesters in east Ukraine seize weapons: Interior Ministry - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Pro-Russian protesters who broke into state security headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk have seized weapons, and highway police have closed down entrances into the city, local police said on Monday.

Related Stories

Mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine has seen a sharp rise in tension since Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's overthrow in February and the advent of an interim government in Kiev that wants closer ties with Europe.

"Unknown people who are in the building have broken into the building's arsenal and have seized weapons," police said in a statement. Nine people had been injured in the disturbances in Luhansk, they said. Separately, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page that the regional administrative building in the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, had been cleared of "separatist"

protesters. Pro-Russian protesters in the east seized official buildings in three cities on Sunday, including the regional administrative building in the mining hub of Donetsk. Demonstrators in Donetsk and Luhansk demanded a referendum be carried out on whether to join Russia like that held in Crimea that paved the way for its annexation by Russia.

Avakov on Sunday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating the "separatist disorder" and promised that disturbances would be brought under control without violence. The protesters appeared to be responding in part to deposed Yanukovich, who fled to Russia after he was ousted and on March 28 issued a public call for each of Ukraine's regions to hold a referendum on its status inside the country.

Russia has branded the new government in Kiev illegitimate and has annexed Ukraine's Crimea region citing threats to its Russian-speaking majority - a move that has sparked the biggest standoff between Moscow and the West since the end of the Cold War.

Jeb Bush says illegal immigration often 'an act of love' - Yahoo News

Jeb Bush says illegal immigration often 'an act of love' - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Jeb Bush, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, said on Sunday that illegal immigrants who come to the United States to provide for their families are not committing a felony but an "act of love."

In comments at odds with the views of many in his party, Bush, the son of the 41st president and brother of the 43rd, said of the divisive immigration issue: "I think we need to kind of get beyond the harsh political rhetoric to a better place.

"I'm going to say this and it will be on tape and so be it," Bush said in an interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream in an event at the Texas presidential library of his father, George H.W. Bush.

"The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come legally ... and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work, to be able to provide for their family, yes,
they broke the law, but it's not a felony. "It's an act of love, it's an act of commitment to your family.

Bush, 61, added: "I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime. There should be a price paid, but it shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." Bush repeated at the event that he would decide on a presidential bid by the end of the year.
A comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate in June 2013 but has stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Republican lawmakers have cited deep divisions in the party over the issue, including granting legal status to 11 million undocumented immigrants.

A Republican Party review after the last presidential election had urged the party to embrace immigration reform to attract more Hispanic support. Democratic President Barack Obama, who was re-elected in 2012, won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote to Republican challenger Mitt Romney's 27 percent.

Recent polls have suggested that if he were to run, Bush, a former Florida governor, would be weighed down by Americans' lingering attitudes toward his brother, George W. Bush, who left office in January 2009 as one of the least popular presidents in U.S. history.

In a Washington Post/ABC News poll last month, nearly half the voters surveyed said they "definitely would not" vote for Jeb Bush in 2016 - a level of disapproval matched only by Romney. Even Bush's mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, has been lukewarm about the notion of another son running for president.

Asked by Bream about the critical considerations that would go into his decision on whether to run for the presidency, Bush said one was whether he could do it with a "hopeful, optimistic message" that avoids drawing him into a political "mudfight."

The other consideration, he said, "is it OK for my family? Is it something that isn't a huge sacrifice for our family." He added: "It turns out that not running has generated more interest than if I said I was running."

Thursday, April 3, 2014

NYC Mayor de Blasio Rips Corporate Welfare, Champions a Living Wage - The Good Men Project

NYC Mayor de Blasio Rips Corporate Welfare, Champions a Living Wage - The Good Men ProjectJohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The newly elected mayor of New York City has come out strong against corporate welfare and income inequality, and he has a plan to help remedy them. During an interview with WNYC reporter Brian Lehrer, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “If we’re subsidizing companies, we have every right to demand a living wage for the people they pay.”

DeBlasio set his sights, more specifically, on the fast food industry. In October, a report found that American taxpayers hand out over $3.8 billion every year to help subsidize workers pay for the countries top 10 largest fast food chains. The subsidies include welfare to help supplement their workers’ poverty wages, SNAP benefits so they can afford to eat, and Medicaid so that they do not die from a preventable illness. All while raking in record profits year after year.

The increased awareness led to a historic walk out of non-unionized workers. Among their strongest supporters was de Blasio. Prior to his election,he joined fast food employees during protests in which they
demanded a higher minimum wages, benefits and a union. While the walk out was not immediate successful, they did change the conversation in America to a much more pressing issue. One that de Blasio heard loud and clear. At the time, he said,

“The bottom line is, this is an unsupportable situation where every day hard-working people can’t meet, and the companies involved certainly can do more.” Americans have built a cynicism towards what a politician says versus what they will actually do, and for good reason. When we vote, we make the best choice possible then hope we made the right choice. DeBlasio is not that kind of politician. Instead, he took to heart the anger and frustration of low-wage employees and wants to create laws that would help level the playing field.

The mayor is expected to soon introduce legislation expanding living wage protections to New York. Under a proposal introduced this past summer, de Blasio would raise the wage for employees at companies receiving city subsidies–including some retail and fast-food restaurants–to $11.75 an hour with benefits.
De Blasio said during the WNYC interview that he will fully unveil his plan to combat income inequality during next weeks State of the City address.

Another possible plan that de Blasio is considering is asking Albany to allow New York City the power to set its own minimum wage. This idea is a lot like the one that would split California into two different states. New York City is one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. The needs of the people in the city differ greatly from the rest of the state. Even at $11.75 an hour, trying to support a family would still be at a poverty level.

If de Blasio is granted the right to set his own minimum wage, it could give the city the power it needs to reduce income inequality. A higher minimum wage will mean more money in the pockets of workers which
builds a thriving economy. While Republicans will try to argue the theory that a higher minimum wage would mean less jobs, the facts simply say otherwise. De Blasio and the Democratic Party are on the right side
of this issue. The question is, will enough Americans create enough noise to force Congress to do the right thing by them?

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Turkey shoots down Syrian plane it says violated air space - Yahoo News

Turkey shoots down Syrian plane it says violated air space - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space
in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces for control of a border crossing.
"A Syrian plane violated our airspace," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey. "Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this

will be hard."

Syria condemned what it called a "blatant aggression" and said the jet was pursuing rebel fighters inside Syria. It said the pilot had managed to eject before the plane crashed. The Turkish general staff said

one of its control centers detected two Syrian MIG-23s around 1 pm (1100 GMT) and warned them four times after they came close to the Turkish border.

One plane entered Turkish airspace at Yayladagi, east of the Kasab border crossing, it said. A Turkish F-16 fired a rocket at the Syrian jet and it crashed around 1,200 meters (1,300 yards) inside Syrian territory.

Amateur video released by rebel fighters showed smoke rising from wooded hills in the border area where they said the plane had come down. The rebels have been fighting since Friday for control of the Kasab

crossing, one of several counter-offensives since they retreated this week from a crusader castle near the Lebanese frontier and town on a vital cross-border supply route.

Assad's soldiers, backed by Iran and Shi'ite forces from Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah, have been pushing rebels back in the centre of the country around Damascus and Homs, but have only a minimal presence in most of north and eastern Syria.

"UNPRECEDENTED" TURKISH INTERVENTION
The incident occurred six months after Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter which crossed into Turkish airspace in the same border area.

Once a close ally of Assad, Erdogan became a fierce critic of the president's military response to Syria's uprising and has sheltered and supported rebels battling to overthrow him. Authorities in Damascus say this
week's Islamist rebel offensive around the Kasab border crossing marked a new escalation, accusing Turkey of firing tank and artillery shells into Syria to provide cover for the fighters.

A source at Syria's foreign ministry called Turkey's actions "unprecedented and unjustified", state news agency SANA said.

More than 140,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, while 2.5 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries and millions more need humanitarian aid.

Assad's forces have already lost control of most border crossings with Turkey during the three-year civil
war but had held on to Kasab, gateway to the coastal province of Latakia that has remained an Assad stronghold.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said heavy clashes continued for a third day around Kasab, where rebels have seized control of the border crossing but Assad's forces, who still control
the nearby Kasab village, have been fighting back, supported by air power.

The British-based anti-Assad Observatory said rebels also launched another attack in Latakia on Sunday in the village of Solas, about 25 km (15 miles) south of Kasab. They also fired two rockets into the coastal city of Latakia, the main hub for operations to ship out Syria's chemical weapons for destruction under a deal reached with the United States and Russia. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In the northern city of Aleppo, rebels said they had captured a former police station on the edge of the city's ancient citadel, as well as installations in the Layramoun district and a nearby hill overlooking the main road into Aleppo from the northwest.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Moldova tells Russia: don't eye annexation here - Yahoo News

Moldova tells Russia: don't eye annexation here - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The president of ex-Soviet Moldova warned Russia on Tuesday against considering any move to annex his
country's separatist Transdniestria region in the same way that it has taken control of Crimea in Ukraine.

The president's comments came one day after the speaker of Transdniestria's separatist parliament, during a trip to Moscow, urged Russia to incorporate his mainly Russian-speaking region, which split away from Moldova in 1990.

Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti said Russia would be making a "mistake" if it agreed to the request for annexation from Transdniestria's parliamentary speaker, Mikhail Burla. "This is an illegal body which has taken no decision on inclusion into Russia," Timofti told a news conference. "I believe that Burla's actions are counter-productive and will do no good for either Moldova or Russia. And if Russia makes a move to satisfy

such proposals, it will be making a mistake," he said. President Vladimir Putin and the ethnic Russian leaders of Ukraine's Crimea region signed a treaty on Tuesday in Moscow making the Black Sea peninsula part of Russia after its voters overwhelmingly backed such a move in a referendum on Sunday.

The Russian-speakers of Transdniestria seceded from Moldova in 1990, one year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, amid fears that Moldova would shortly merge with neighboring Romania, whose language and culture it broadly shares.

The separatist region fought a brief war with Moldova in 1992 and it declared itself an independent state, but it remains unrecognized by any country, including Russia.

"INTERNATIONAL NORMS"

Attempts to resolve the dispute have made little progress, with Russian "peacekeepers" standing guard over a large Soviet-era arsenal. A referendum in Transdniestria in 2006 produced a 97.2 percent vote in favor of joining Russia, an even higher score than in Crimea's referendum. Unlike Crimea, however, it is located far from Russia. It shares a border with Ukraine.

Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, has been governed by pro-Western leaders since 2009. It has clinched an association agreement with the European Union, as currently sought by the pro-Western leaders
who came to power in Ukraine after the removal of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

In his remarks, Timofti denounced as illegal the referendum in Crimea and any bid by Russia to annex the peninsula, echoing criticism from Ukraine's pro-Western leaders, the United States and EU countries.
Russia says it is acting in Crimea in accordance with international law. Timofti said Moldova wanted to solve its Transdniestria standoff through talks anchored in upholding the country's territorial integrity. "Russia has repeatedly stood by this. Our expectations from Russia are that it will observe international norms in Transdniestria," he said. Reports from Moscow said speaker Burla told Russian officials his region had given approval in principle to a law that would ensure the implementation of Russian legislation by Transdniestria.

"Transdniestria's very difficult situation could be made even worse if Moldova, which has already signed an association agreement with the EU, now adopts restrictive economic measures," Russian media quoted Burla as saying. It was Yanukovich's decision last November not to sign Ukraine's association agreement with

the EU and to seek closer economic ties with Russia instead that ignited the street protests that eventually forced his removal from office.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Baltimore set to repay $4 million in misspent homeless funds | Baltimore Brew

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
In a major setback to The Journey Home, the mayor’s signature homeless program, the Board of Estimates is scheduled to allocate nearly $4 million in general funds to reimburse the federal government for
mishandling homeless funds spent between 2009 and 2011.

The settlement, listed on Wednesday’s board agenda, will end a nearly two-year battle with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over the use of $9.5 million in Homelessness
Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing funds awarded to Baltimore as part of President Obama’s 2009 Recovery Act.

Following a critical audit by HUD’s Inspector General, the agency made a final determination that $3,756,025.35 of the funds given to non-profit grantees as part of The Journey Home program violated federal eligibility requirements or were not part of the program’s terms and conditions.

City Hall Deflects Blame
A dozen providers – including Prisoner’s Aid Association, People Encouraging People (PEP), AIDS Interfaith Residential Services (AIRS), the city’s Community Action Centers, and St. Vincent de Paul – could not document how millions of dollars were used.

The Mayor’s Office of Human Services administered the funds, and United Way of Central Maryland served as fiscal agent for The Journey Home program.

Both groups allowed federal funds to be dispersed to providers on a predetermined basis before any documentation of spending was received, according to HUD’s Inspector General.

HUD reported that several subgrantees had conflicts of interest, and the city’s Homeless Services office hired a top employee based on an “oral contract” that was paid for with federal funds. In response,
Olivia Farrow, director of Human Services, and Kate Briddell, Homeless Services chief, insisted that the city would document and account for all of the spending.

Even last month, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was denying that the matter was anything more serious than misplaced paperwork and confusion caused by a federal program that was hastily set up to address the Great Recession and mortgage crisis.

The mayor said other cities also failed to document funds for the program, but a review of HUD inspection reports by The Brew indicated that Baltimore was, by far, the worst violator.
Following media reports, officials from St. Vincent De Paul, Catholic Charities and Health Care for the Homeless stood alongside the mayor last month to defend the program.

Asked who was to blame for the debacle, the Mayor told The Brew: “I tend to think blame is someone else’s game. This to me is about serving homeless individuals, and this was done. Serving families in need, and that was done. For me, at the end of the day, it’s about reputable service providers providing good services for people in need.”
___________________________________________________________
OUR COVERAGE OF THE DISPUTED FUNDS
• What a federal audit tells us about city spending (12/5/12)

• City reserves $7 million to repay mismanaged federal homeless grant (12/3/13)

• Questions but no answers on mismanaged homeless services grant (1/8/14)

• HUD tells city to repay nearly $4 million in misspent homeless funds (2/25/14)

• Documents show: HUD last year ordered review of 64 homeless grants (2/26/14)

• Mayor and homeless providers praise grants faulted by HUD (2/26/14)
__________________________________________________________
During the February 26 news conference, the mayor cautioned reporters that the city may not have to reimburse HUD in cash. She said, “There are a lot of ways to get to that 3.7 [million dollars]. At this point,
it is not clear whether it has to be dollar-for-dollar.”

Asked if the city was seeking a special deal with HUD, she answered, “It’s too early to say.” In its still-unreleased report (obtained by The Brew), HUD’s Baltimore field office stipulated that the money had to come from non-federal city funds, meaning from the taxpayer-financed general fund.

This week’s Board of Estimates agenda shows that the federal government hasn’t backed down – and is demanding its money right down to the penny.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Crimeans overwhelmingly vote for secession - Yahoo News

Crimeans overwhelmingly vote for secession - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds Sunday after residents in Crimea
voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The United States and Europe condemned the ballot as illegal and destabilizing and were expected to slap sanctions against Russia for it.

Related Stories

Ukraine's new government in Kiev called the referendum a "circus" directed at gunpoint by Moscow — referring to the thousands of Russian troops now in the strategic Black Sea peninsula after seizing it two weeks ago.

But after the polls closed late Sunday, crowds of ethnic Russians in the regional Crimean capital of Simferopol erupted with jubilant chants in the main square, overjoyed at the prospect of once again becoming part of Russia.

The Crimea referendum offered voters the choice of seeking annexation by Russia or remaining in Ukraine with greater autonomy. After 50 percent of the ballots were counted, Mikhail Malishev, head of the referendum committee, said more than 95 percent of voters had approved splitting off and joining Russia.

Opponents of secession appeared to have stayed away Sunday, denouncing the vote as a cynical power play and land grab by Russia.

Russia was expected to face strong sanctions Monday by the U.S. and Europe over the vote, which could also encourage rising pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine's east and lead to further divisions in this nation of 46
million. Residents in western Ukraine and the capital, Kiev, are strongly pro-West and Ukrainian nationalist.

The Crimean parliament will meet Monday to formally ask Moscow to be annexed and Crimean lawmakers will fly to Moscow later in the day for talks, Crimea's pro-Russia prime minister said on Twitter.

In Moscow, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, suggested that joining Russia was a done deal.
"We understand that for 23 years after Ukraine's formation as a sovereign state, Crimeans have been waiting for this day," Naryshkin was quoted as saying by the state ITAR-Tass news agency.

Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky said the annexation could take "from three days to three months," according to Interfax.
Some residents in Crimea said they feared the new Ukrainian government that took over when President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia last month will oppress them.

In Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia now leases a major naval base from Ukraine for $98 million a year, more than 70 people surged into a polling station in the first 15 minutes of voting Sunday.

Ukraine's new prime minister insisted that neither Ukraine nor the West would recognize the vote.
"Under the stage direction of the Russian Federation, a circus performance is underway: the so-called referendum," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sunday. "Also taking part in the performance are 21,000 Russian troops, who with their guns are trying to prove the legality of the
referendum."
As soon as the polls closed, the White House again denounced the vote.

Russia raised the stakes Saturday when its forces, backed by helicopter gunships and armored vehicles, took control of the Ukrainian village of Strilkove and a key natural gas distribution plant nearby— the first Russian military move into Ukraine beyond the Crimean peninsula of 2 million people. The Russian forces later returned the village but kept control of the gas plant.

On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers were digging trenches and erecting barricades between the village and the gas plant.
"We will not let them advance further into Ukrainian territory," said Serhiy Kuz, commander of a Ukrainian paratrooper battalion.

Despite the threat of sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has vigorously resisted calls to pull back in Crimea. At the United Nations on Saturday, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution declaring the
referendum illegal. China, its ally, abstained and 13 of the 15 other nations on the council voted in favor.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke and agreed to support constitutional reforms in Ukraine that could ease the tensions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Ukraine's Regional Policy Minister Volodymyr Groisman told The Associated Press the new government was already working on giving towns and regions more autonomy but said there were no plans to turn Ukraine into a federation.

In Donetsk, one of the main cities in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia demonstrators called Sunday for a referendum similar to the one in Crimea.

In Sevastopol, speakers blared the city anthem up and down the streets but the military threat was not far away — a Russian naval warship still blocked the port's outlet to the Black Sea, trapping Ukrainian boats.

At a polling station inside a historic school, tears came to Vladimir Lozovoy, a 75-year-old retired Soviet naval officer, as he talked about his vote.

But Crimea's large Muslim Tatar minority — whose families had been forcibly removed from their homeland and sent to Central Asia during Soviet times — remained defiant.
The Crimea referendum "is a clown show, a circus," Tatar activist Refat Chubarov said on Crimea's Tatar television station. "This is a tragedy, an illegitimate government with armed forces from another country."

The fate of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in their Crimean bases by pro-Russian forces was still uncertain. But Ukraine's acting defense minister, Igor Tenyuk, was quoted as saying Sunday that an agreement had been reached with Russia not to block Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea through Friday. It was not clear exactly what that meant.

On the streets of Simferopol, blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags were nowhere to seen but red, white and blue Russian and Crimean flags fluttered in abundance.

Ethnic Ukrainians
interviewed outside the Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral of Vladimir and
Olga said they refused to take part in the referendum, calling it an
illegal charade stage-managed by Moscow. Some said they were scared of
the potential for widespread harassment.

"We're just not going to play these separatist games," said Yevgen Sukhodolsky, a 41-year-old prosecutor from Saki, a town outside Simferopol. "Putin is the fascist. The Russian government is fascist." Vasyl Ovcharuk, a retired gas pipe layer, predicted dark days ahead for Crimea. "This will end up in military action, in which peaceful people will suffer. And that means everybody. Shells and bullets are blind," he said.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Waiting for China to Speak Out Against Putin - Bloomberg View

Waiting for China to Speak Out Against Putin - Bloomberg View
\JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
The world's condemnation of Vladimir Putin's power grab in Ukraine is missing one important voice: China's. That's no surprise.
Since assuming office, Chinese President Xi Jinping has put great emphasis on building up his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men fancy themselves strong, charismatic leaders bent on restoring their nations to greatness.
But if China wants to be the world leader it claims to be, it cannot afford to sit on the sidelines this
time. Xi spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday night and, contrary to Russian claims
of Chinese support, agreed on the "importance of upholding principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, both in the context of Ukraine and also for the broader functioning of the international system." That's a nod in the right direction, not a bold step.
The difficulty for Xi is that he considers Russia -- his first overseas stop after becoming president -- to be a useful counterbalance to the West. It's also an increasingly important source of energy and advanced weaponry.
Even as China, in its one public comment on Russia's incursion in Crimea, reaffirmed its respect for Ukraine's independence and sovereignty, it underscored that "there are reasons that the Ukrainian situation is what it is
today" -- a reference to the messy collapse of the Soviet Union, which both Xi and Putin agree was a tragedy.
Yet the real bond in the Sino-Russian relationship is the very principle Putin has just violated in Ukraine: noninterference in another nation's internal affairs. Moscow and Beijing cling tightly to the dictum to justify United Nations Security Council vetoes. It's critical to both, given their shared worries about how outsiders might exploit ethnic tensions and democracy movements within their countries.
If Putin continues to advance in Ukraine, forcing a military confrontation or breakup of the country, he may well push China to take a stronger stand. The truth is that in material terms, China gains less than Russia does
from their relationship. The latter accounts for a little more than 2 percent of China's external trade. While volumes are growing, in 2011 China got only about 6 percent of its imported oil from Russia. And though China is Russia's largest trading partner, Putin has also been hedging his bets. He has sought to expand rail links, pipelines and energy exports not just to China but also to both Koreas and to China's archrival Japan.
Russia is aiming to sell sophisticated weaponry to India, and has deepened economic and military relations with Vietnam. Moscow has longstanding fears about Beijing's influence in its Far East, where an influx of Chinese traders has virtually colonized the region.
In other matters affecting international stability, China has acknowledged its responsibility to get involved. It has, for instance, agreed to chase pirates off the coast of Somalia even if they flee into territorial waters, and it has chosen not to obstruct some international sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Implicitly tolerating Putin's adventurism now only reinforces fears about China's behavior -- especially among its neighbors, who already suspect that it aims to annex several islands and atolls across the East and South China Seas.
China ultimately shares the same goals in Ukraine as the rest of the world: to affirm the sanctity of international borders, avoid bloodshed and restore stability to global markets as quickly as possible. All would be accomplished much faster and more durably if China spoke out now against Putin's aggression.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Is Ben Carson 2016's sleeper candidate? | TheHill

Is Ben Carson 2016's sleeper candidate? | TheHill
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Neurologist Ben Carson could be 2016’s sleeper presidential contender. You won’t find him in early polls, and he doesn’t make headlines for huddling with top advisers in primary states. Carson is lauded for his plainspoken yet forceful ability to speak clearly about the party’s values. The retired neurosurgeon, rose to prominence after delivering a controversial speech at last year’s National Prayer Breakfast, where he lambasted President Obama and his policies while standing just feet away from the president.

Now, his supporters believe Carson, as a black Republican and a true political outsider, could be the one GOP candidate capable of taking down Hillary Clinton.
That simple star power has made him one of the biggest draws at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, earned him a prime speaking slot on Saturday, and and even inspired an unlikely movement to draft him into the presidential race.
But for as much of a surprise as his rise with conservatives has been, he’s still a reluctant candidate. Carson maintains he doesn’t want to run and isn’t making any serious preparations for a bid, but in a Thursday interview with The Hill, it was clear that he has thought seriously about the logistics of a campaign.
“My hope, obviously, is that someone else will really catch fire and generate a great deal of enthusiasm. If that doesn’t happen in another year and there’s still a lot of people clamoring for another option, then I will have to really look seriously at it,” he told The Hill in a phone conversation.
But people are already clamoring for Carson. He wouldn’t give specifics on where his packed speaking schedule had taken him in the past few months, but said he visits states in every corner of the country, headlining fundraisers and civic events and speaking at schools about conservative principles and on the dangers of ObamaCare.
“People are so thrilled to see that they’re not the only one with common sense. But the problem is the
people with common sense have been beaten down so they’re afraid to express themselves,” he said.
That’s why he’s trying to “wake the American people up” — a central theme of his speech on on CPAC’s closing day.
“I’m going to talk about how [conservatives have] been picking on little things and making big arguments out of them, rather than looking at the big things that are destroying our country,” he said, noting the national debt as an example of a troubling “big thing.”
But don’t call his address a precursor to a presidential run. Carson said that “if it’s supposed to happen it’s going to happen,” and that he’s leaving the preparations “in the hands of God.” Or, the hands of Vernon
Robinson, a former congressional candidate and George H.W. Bush appointee and one of the co-founders of the Draft Ben Carson for President Committee.
The organization raised $2.83 million from 47,000 donors in its first six months of operation — considerably more than the $1.25 million the similar “Ready for Hillary” effort made in its first six months, and they’ve deployed 1,700 active volunteers to GOP functions nationwide to gather draft signatures. Standing in the noisy hallways of CPAC, where a troupe of volunteers were passing out “Ben Carson for President” swag two floors down, Robinson told The Hill that the group is hoping to triple that sum by the end of the year.
“We’re trying to do three things: Get a million people to sign the [draft] petition by the end of the year, raise someplace between $7 or 8 million from 150,000 donors by the end of the year and we’re trying to build a
political infrastructure,” he said.
Robinson is so enthusiastic about Carson for president because, he says, he may be the only candidate that can take down Clinton.
“He’s the only guy who can broaden the GOP base, get 17 percent of the black vote, get a healthy number of Hispanic voters, while still staying true to conservative ideals,” Robinson said. “[Carson’s] very effective at communicating conservative ideas so that the average American can understand.
Carson said he was aware of the draft effort but that he would “have to see something on a sustained basis” in terms of encouragement to run, and that “$2-3 million is not anywhere close to enough money” to support a campaign.
Carson did say, however, “I’ve heard from some very big donors” encouraging him to run, though he wouldn’t offer any names. He readily acknowledges that he’s not steeped in politics and would need a
team with that experience to mount a strong challenge.
And, as any serious contender would do, he’s sizing up the field before he makes his decision.
“I really am waiting more to see what the field looks like. If there’s somebody out there who is truly exciting people, there wouldn’t be any need for me to run,” he said.
But that hasn’t happened yet: “I think there are a lot of potential people. No one has really grabbed the
imagination of the American people.” Indeed, if the need is there, he just might do it. Begrudgingly.
“I don’t particularly want to do it,” he told The Hill, “but I would never turn my back on my fellow Americans.”

Mitch McConnell On Tea Party Challengers: 'We Are Going To Crush Them Everywhere'

Mitch McConnell On Tea Party Challengers: 'We Are Going To Crush Them Everywhere'
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he isn't worried about tea party-backed candidates challenging GOP incumbents in this year's midterm elections.

"I think we are going to crush them everywhere," McConnell told the New York Times in an interview published Saturday. "I don't think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country."

McConnell is one of several senators facing tea party opposition in their primary races this spring. McConnell's main opponent is Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin, who has spent the campaign attacking the senator's conservative credentials. As the Associated Press reported last month, McConnell and other GOP incumbents have started to come out aggressively against these candidates, using opposition research to undermine them.

“Mitch McConnell is clearly in trouble in this primary or he wouldn’t be attacking Matt Bevin and declaring
war on conservatives,” the Senate Conservatives Fund's Matt Hoskins told the Times.

However, polls in the race tell a different story. A survey released last month by GOP firm Wenzel Strategies found McConnell with a 42 point lead over Bevin, while a Bluegrass Poll pinned McConnell's lead at 26 points.

The Kentucky primary will be held May 20.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Michele Bachmann jewsplains to U.S. Jews that they are buzzkilling her End Times dream date | The Raw Story

Michele Bachmann jewsplains to U.S. Jews that they are buzzkilling her End Times dream date | The Raw Story
Bachmann_DONKEYHOTY-Flickr

JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
Michele Bachmann (R-North Bedlam) is not very happy with American Jews. No siree, she most definitely is not.

After all that American conservative evangelical Christians have done for The Chosen People, they persist in not choosing Republicans at the voting booth. C’mon, you guys! The Bible-thumpers are totally looking
the other way about that little misunderstanding a couple of thousand years ago when you guys kinda-sorta killed Their Lord and Savior, The Prince of Peace, Son ‘O God: Jesus “MC J.C” Christ.

So can you folks of the Hebrew persuasion maybe help a Brother In Christ out and vote for a Republican, even if he’s a Mormon, once in awhile?

C’mon …. be a mensch (Jewish for: ‘cool dude’) just once!

Apparently it’s not in the Kabbalah cards, so Michele sat down with Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, (‘Murican for: ‘chock full ‘o Godbotherers’) to explain that U.S Jews are bring about the destruction of their homeland – which is, admittedly, kind of bad for them – but it’s actually really worse for her because she’s not getting any younger and the End Times aren’t getting here any faster.

And you know why?

According to Right Wing Watch, Michele says it’s all because of those meddling Jews and that schvartzer in the, previously, White House:

The Jewish community gave him their votes, their support, their financial support and as recently as last week, forty-eight Jewish donors who are big contributors to the president wrote a letter to the Democrat [sic] senators in the US Senate to tell them to not advance sanctions against Iran. This is clearly against Israel’s best interest. What has been shocking has been seeing and observing Jewish organizations who it appears have made it their priority to support the political priority and the political ambitions of the president over the best interests of Israel. They sold out Israel. Why it was just last year when Bachmann warned that the End Times Are Nigh:

“This happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists, now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history.”

“Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha
Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand,” Bachmann continued. “When we see
up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were
told this; these days would be as the days of Noah.”

Cosmology note: Noah opens nationwide on March 28, so that has to mean something. Right?

Anyway, everybody knows that Jesus won’t come back until Israel is all nice and tidy, so it would be greatly appreciated if the U.S. Jews would clean up their act, stop hanging around with riff-raff (like giving him money and smokes), and stop treating Israel like a frat house; maybe make the bed, wash a few dishes and take out the empties.

Then, when He gets here, the Jews can all convert which will totally make up for that little whoopsie-doodle! from a couple of thousand years ago…

Bless your Savior-denying (John. 1:11) hearts…