What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. I always wondered why the arms supply operation the White House and State Dept. were running to arm Islamic extremists in Libya didn’t get more attention from Republicans. Well now we know why, at least one top Republican was in on it, which is why Republicans left it alone.
From FoxNews “Another email released by the State Department shows that five days earlier, on April 3, 2011, Bill Clinton said he would not rule out arming the Libyan opposition. The story was circulated by Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s principal personal adviser at the State Department, to “H.” While it’s not clear who “H” is, based on the message traffic it is likely Hillary Clinton or possibly adviser Huma Abedin. Later that same year, a Sept. 10, 2011 email with a subject line “Rogers” said, “Apparently wants to see you to talk Libya/weapons.”
At the time, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was Mike Rogers, who abruptly announced he would not seek re-election in the spring of 2014. Rogers did not immediately respond to questions seeking comment. Fox News also filed its own Freedom of Information Act request for the documents in October 2012.
Current and former intelligence and administration officials consistently have skirted questions about weapons shipments, first documented by Fox News in October 2012, one month after the Benghazi terrorist attack, and what role the movement played in arming extremist groups the U.S. government is now trying to defeat in Syria and Iraq.
Through shipping records, Fox News confirmed that the Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means “The Victory,” was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun — 35 miles from the Syrian border — on Sept. 6, 2012, five days before the Benghazi terrorist attack. The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, RPG’s and Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS.
On the movement of weapons, in an interview broadcast May 11, former acting CIA director Mike Morell said the CIA and U.S. government “played no role. Now whether we were watching other people do it, I can’t talk about it.”
Heavily redacted congressional testimony, declassified after the House intelligence committee’s Benghazi investigation concluded in 2014, shows conflicting accounts about the movement of weapons from Libya to Syria were apparently given to lawmakers.”
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2. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been indicted on federal charges.
From Reuters/MSN “Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted on Thursday on federal charges including making false statements to the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said.
The Illinois Republican, who left office in 2007, was charged with structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000, and lying to the FBI about his withdrawals, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Each count of the two-count indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Hastert, 73, was not immediately available for comment.
According to the indictment, the misconduct involved payments to an unnamed individual who had been a Yorkville, Illinois, resident and had known Hastert for most of the person’s life.
Around 2010, Hastert met with the person several times and discussed past misconduct by Hastert. Eventually, Hastert agreed to pay the person $3.5 million in compensation and to conceal unspecified misconduct, the indictment said.”
Rumor has it that the misconduct involved blackmail and happened during Hastert’s stint as a wrestling coach before running for elected office.
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3. Hypocrites. So typical.
From TheLATimes “Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.
The push to include an exception to the mandated wage increase for companies that let their employees collectively bargain was the latest unexpected detour as the city nears approval of its landmark legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
For much of the past eight months, labor activists have argued against special considerations for business owners, such as restaurateurs, who said they would have trouble complying with the mandated pay increase.
But Rusty Hicks, who heads the county Federation of Labor and helps lead the Raise the Wage coalition, said Tuesday night that companies with workers represented by unions should have leeway to negotiate a wage below that mandated by the law.”
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4. More waste, fraud, and abuse.
From TheFreeBeacon “The State Department has undertaken the costly construction of new embassies across the globe.
The new embassy in London is estimated to cost around $1 billion. Glass for the London build was shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean for cutting and framing. The new Afghanistan embassy exceeded $150 million.
The current embassy in Mexico City is currently crumbling, unsafe, and overcrowded. The build was supposed to cost $600 million but has increased at least a third, all before the start of construction. The new site for the embassy was bought four years ago for $120 million and was in a former industry area that was once site to a Colgate Palmolive factory that left hazardous waste.
Colgate Palmolive has been in the process of cleaning site for the past three and a half years, and the land is still not ready. The cost of construction rose from $577 million to $763 million. With the cost of the land and the cost of the new embassy, the project will cost well over $939 million, making it one of the most expensive embassies in the world.
‘The State Department changed the way that they build these,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah). “They went from standard embassy designs, which were coming in under budget. They were coming in swifter. They are now to the point where they’ve got a new process and it’s much more expensive and a lot slower.””
Here’s the CBS report.
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5. How sad. So much potential lost at the altar of selfishness.
From CNSNews “The number of American babies who have been aborted in the years since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision has already exceeded the entire population of the United States as recorded in the 1880 Census.
This is according to numbers published by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Guttmacher Institute.
In 1880, according to the Census Bureau, there were 50,189,209 people in the United States. These included, the Census Bureau notes, Mark Twain, who had not yet written The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Thomas Edison, who would start his electrical company two years later; and Booker T. Washington, who would open the Tuskegee Institute the next year.
The Guttmacher Institute has estimated the number of abortions in the United States in each year from 1973 through 2011. They add up to 51,376,750—or 1,187,541 more than the entire population of the nation as of 1880. In each of the last 36 straight years for which Guttmacher has published an estimate of the number of abortions, the number has exceeded 1 million.”
Our nation should hang it’s head in shame, but especially those who support/endorse this atrocity.
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6. Maybe the coach should change the team name to the Clemson Cowards.
From TruthRevolt “Under pressure from LGBT groups and the South Carolina House minority leader, Clemson University Head Football Coach Dabo Swinney has announced that he will no longer attend a fundraiser held by a Christian nonprofit organization.
The June 2 fundraiser will be hosted by the Palmetto Family Council, a South Carolina-based Christian nonprofit which describes itself as dedicated to promoting “biblical principles,” particularly “the values and virtues of marriage, the traditional family model, and sexual purity.” The group supports traditional marriage, endorsed the state’s partial birth abortion law, and is dedicated to promoting religious freedom.
Swinney was to be honored at the fundraiser for his work with his own All In Foundation, which focuses on raising awareness around the state about health issues. Though Swinney explained that he had not official association with the Palmetto Family Council and was attending on behalf of all involved in the work of his foundation, the uproar from gay rights activists had made attending too much of a “distraction.”
“I appreciate the recognition of my and the foundation’s efforts,” Swinney said. “However, after much thought, in order to avoid a distraction for the team and the entire football program, I’ve decided it is in the best interests of all involved that I not attend the event on June 2.”
“It was my understanding that the nomination and selection for this award was based on the work done by our All In Foundation and the difference it is making in our community,” explained Swinney. “My acceptance of this award was to be on behalf of all the volunteers that make our foundation a success. The work of our foundation is intended to build a better community and be a positive influence.”
“Recently, my scheduled participation in this event has been perceived incorrectly as an endorsement of certain viewpoints and has entered the political arena. I have been out of town since last Thursday and am disappointed that this has become a distraction for me, my team and many others. I have been and continue to be very open about my personal beliefs. However, I do not inject those beliefs or the work of the foundation into the political process.””
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Wandering Views 
#3 Raises some questions. Now unions are excepted from the wage increase. Why is this? Are they trying to put small businesses out of business? Are they trying to put successful businesses out of business? Do they only want businesses that the union can control? Does this lead to the government controlling all business? There is something there but my brain isn’t quite on it yet.
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Kim,
Many reasons for it.
Here’s a few…..
Number 1 if it doesn’t apply to them, union shops won’t have to deal with the added costs as companies who aren’t will now pay more in wages than they have to.
Number 2 if it doesn’t apply they become more competitive because union contract estimates are usually higher because union shops are more costly to run.
Number 3 they hope this will push companies to vote in unions in order to avoid these new costs. That gives them more members, and more dues to buy more politicians who will vote for this type of nonsense legislation.
It’s a perfect example of one of the many problems with this type of law. It also shows a serious amount of hypocrisy. They pushed for and had their bought and paid for politicians vote for it, yet now something they said would be best for everyone they don’t want applied to themselves. And I don’t doubt for a minute that the libs in Cali. will give them their exemptions, just like with ObamaCare, they pushed it, yet they’re exempt.
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Aj’s explanation echoes the reason Rush says Walmart supported Obama Care.
They can afford the added cost.
It will drive their competitors out of business.
Simple, huh?
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It doesn’t matter. Soon everything will be done on-line.
Amazon has driven every bookstore out of Hendersonville.
Middle GD even does her grocery shopping on the computer.
Do not invest in a shopping mall.
I know women love going there, but when they go home and buy their item on a computer, it will eventually drive Belk and Macy’s, and Penny out of business.
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One does wonder about the future of malls. I never go anymore (other than for something very specific, like to try on frames at lenscrafters or whatever). are they still popular hangouts for the young?
Virtually all my shopping (other than for groceries) is online these days, most via Amazon. It’s capitalism at work, Amazon developed what is a brilliant model with lower prices, lightning-fast delivery and generous return & responsive customer service policies.
Now, they’re moving toward same-day service in many areas:
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Amazon-offers-free-same-day-delivery-to-Prime-6292736.php
“In another blow to brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon.com is offering free same-day delivery for Prime members in 14 metropolitan areas. Amazon offers free same-day delivery to Prime members. Members who make a purchase of $35 or more by noon will receive their items by 9 p.m. that day, seven days a week. More than 1 million products, including books, cables and chargers, games, cooking tools and electronics, are eligible for the program initially. …”
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I only buy books on-line and that is because I have to.]
However, that doesn’t affect anything because I don[‘t buy much of anything anymore.
As I’ve said before,
“Nothing I need, not much I want.”
Not entirely true, I think I need a new weed trimmer.
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They have those at Amazon
The nice thing about Amazon, too, is they have customer reviews (people who have bought the item weigh in on how good or lame it is). And obviously the selection is probably bigger than you’d find at a brick-and-mortar store.
I’m sorry to see bookstores go — we still have a Barnes and Noble attached to our mall (in the parking lot, it’s free-standing though) and they seem to be doing OK.
I really miss the big Christian bookstore that was in our area for so many years, I used to love just driving over the bridge and spending an hour or two there on a lazy Saturday afternoon or evening when I didn’t have anything else to do.
Sigh.
I order some of my pet supplies/food now from Amazon, too, along with vitamins, even aspirin …
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More on Hastert…
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-second-person-accused-former-house-speaker-hastert-of-sexual-abuse-official-says/ar-BBkp6II?ocid=U142DHP
“Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying a former student from Yorkville, Ill., to conceal his alleged sexual abuse of the young man while Hastert was a teacher at a high school there, federal law enforcement officials said Friday.
A top official, who would not be identified speaking about the federal charges in Chicago, said investigators also spoke with a second person who raised similar allegations that corroborated what the student said.
The second person was not being paid by Hastert, the official said.”
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Sorry to hear about Hastert, I remember when he was considered something of a bright light.
The news did bring the Dems all around me to life today — they’ve not talked much about politics in a while, but this seemed to give them a boost again. 😦
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