Thursday, February 18, 2016

Hillary Emails: Intelligence Report Said Hezbollah Has Base in Cuba

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Reuters

by JORDAN SCHACHTEL17 Feb 2016Greenville, South Carolina200

A private intelligence report from Hillary Clinton’s confidant, Sid Blumenthal, claimed that Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization, had set up shop in Cuba, according to an email released by the State Department over the weekend.

The group was actively “casing” facilities related to U.S. interests, the intelligence report also says.

The dispatch read:

During the week of September 5, 2011 extremely sensitive sources reported in confidence that the Israeli Intelligence and Security Service (Mossad) has informed the leadership of the Israeli Government that Hezbollah is establishing an operational base in Cuba, designed to support terrorist attacks throughout Latin America.


The confidential intelligence report from Blumenthal to Clinton continued:

These sources believe that Hezbollah supporters have been instructed to also begin casing facilities associated with the United States and the United Kingdom, including diplomatic missions, major banks, and businesses in the region. These individuals believe that the Hezbollah military commanders in Lebanon and Syria view these U.S. and U.K. entities as contingency targets to be attacked in the event of U.S. and British military intervention in either Syria or Iran, at some point in the future.


Breitbart News has reported extensively on Hezbollah’s encroachment into the western hemisphere, noting the group’s rapid rise in the west in recent years.

U.S. officials, members of Congress, and defense experts continue to warn that Iran is utilizing Hezbollah to expand its influence in the region, and is utilizing cultural centers and mosques to spread the message of the Shia Islamic revolution.

Moreover, a recent report alleged that Hezbollah is now “moving freely” throughout the United States and Latin America.

When reached by Breitbart News, the intelligence services of Canada and Mexico would not confirm or deny reports that Hezbollah had extensive operations already set up within the United States.

A State Department official recently acknowledged in a statement to Breitbart News: “Hizballah receives funding from supporters around the world who engage in a host of licit and illicit activities, some of which takes place in the Western Hemisphere.”

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Susan Sarandon on Backing Bernie: ‘I Don’t Vote with My Vagina’

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AP

by DANIEL NUSSBAUM17 Feb 20161068

Actress Susan Sarandon took to her Twitter account on Wednesday to reiterate her support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)’ presidential campaign, saying it is “insulting” that women would be asked to vote for a female president based on gender alone.

“I don’t vote with my vagina,” the 69-year-old Thelma and Louise star tweeted. “It’s so insulting to women to think that you would follow a candidate JUST because she’s a woman.”

“HRC doesn’t rep my interests, @BernieSanders does. Simple as that,” she added, using an acronym for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sanders’ rival for the Democratic nomination.

Sarandon first voiced her support for Sanders in September when she joined Artists for Bernie, a coalition of more than 120 actors, directors and musicians that are publicly supporting the socialist Vermont senator’s run.

The actress appeared at a Sanders rally in Iowa last month, where she sharply criticized Clinton over the former New York senator’s vote to authorize the Iraq war.

“She’s had a job, but what has she done that we’re bragging about? How has she led?” Sarandon said last month.

The actress’ comments come as the Sanders campaign is battling its own controversy this week.

At a Tuesday night event at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, Run the Jewels rapper and Sanders supporter Killer Mike suggested that the fact that Clinton is female should not automatically entitle her to become president.

“[A] uterus doesn’t qualify you to be President of the United States,” the rappersaid at the event. Killer Mike later clarified that he was quoting feminist activist Jane Elliott with the comment.

A poll released Wednesday revealed Sanders had narrowed the gap against Clinton nationally, trailing by just two points. Both candidates are vying to secure female voters ahead of the Nevada and South Carolina primaries this month.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

AFGAN CIA TIES DISCUSSED IN CLINTON EMAIL

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/17/clinton-email-chain-discussed-afghan-nationals-cia-ties-official-says.html

Ted Cruz Super PAC President: We’ve Knocked on ‘More than 100,000 Doors’ in South Carolina

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JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
by DAN RIEHL17 Feb 2016Washington, DC1425
Pollster and president of the Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)-aligned Super PAC “Keep the Promise,” Kellyanne Conway told Breitbart News Daily host Stephen K. Bannon on Sirius XM that stressed the importance of the ground game and said her Super PAC has now knocked on more than 100,000 doors for Cruz in South Carolina. That doesn’t include what the campaign has done, she noted, since they cannot by law coordinate. While not disputing that Trump is the front-runner in S.C., Conway said she is curious to see what happens with Jeb Bush and some of the other candidates still in the back of the pack after the voting.
She also said that her internal polls predict Trump will win the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
Conway said her PAC is seeing a tighter three-man race right now between Rubio, Cruz and Trump as questions have arisen over numerous South Carolina polls flying around.
“Trump wins, but not by the dramatic margins that he got in New Hampshire, not by the dramatic margins that some of these polls show,” she said.  Cruz and then Rubio appear poised to take second and third respectively, according to Conway.
Conway insists conservatives and insurgent candidates are now the dominant theme of this year’s politics and that won’t change. Speaking of the GOP, said Conway, “Conservatives are the mainstay of the party, now. They are the base not a wing of the party and if you take anything from 2016, it’s two things. One, illegal immigration has been elevated where it’s always been among the electorate to the candidates and number two, conservatives are not a wing of he party; they are he base of the party, and the establishment is in a crack-up trying to reckon with that.”
The entire interview can be heard below.  Breitbart News Daily airs from 6AM-9AM EST on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125.
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Bill Clinton ex mistress says he wore her frilly nightie and danced, Hillary is a Lesbian

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www.dailymail.co.uk
Bill Clinton's lovemaking was largely forgettable, says ex-mistress Sally Miller, but Clinton would rarely disappoint when divulging intimate secretsMiller, then 44, would leave her back door ajar so her seven-years younger paramour - then Governor of Arkansas - could slip inKnown then as Sally Perdue, she claims during pillow talk he revealed Hillary preferred female lovers The former singer and radio host, is preparing to dish more secrets of their three-month affair in a tell-all memoirAs far-fetched as her accusations may be, she is convinced that the Democratic presidential candidate is behind a plot to silence herMiller insists she has been stalked, spied upon and plagued by anonymous phone calls since word of her memoir leaked out'There is a vengeful, spiteful ugliness that some women have for other women. Hillary is just one of those women.'For the latest on Hillary and Bill Clinton visitwww.dailymail.co.uk/hillary
Sally Miller looked on in amusement as the man who would become the 42nd President of the United States slipped into her own frilly black nightgown.
The former Miss Arkansas has never forgotten how her younger lover proceeded to dance around the bedroom, serenading her with his saxophone and reducing her to a fit of giggles.
This playful scene was typical of the laughter-filled nights that ex-beauty queen Miller enjoyed with Bill Clinton during their 1983 affair, she tells Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.
The married Governor of Arkansas would frequently adopt the role of entertainer-in-chief to impress his glamorous older woman, a one-time Miss America finalist.
But while his attempts at lovemaking were largely forgettable, Clinton would rarely disappoint when it came to divulging intimate and potentially damaging secrets about his wife Hillary.
More than two decades on, Miller, a former singer and radio host known as Sally Perdue, is preparing to dish more secrets of their pillow talk in a tell-all memoir.
SCROLL DOWN TO HEAR SALLY MILLER 
Sally Miller tells Daily Mail Online she met Clinton at parties and political functions in 1974 when she was a senate aide at the Arkansas State Capitol and he was preparing for his run for the House of Representatives. But their affair began when he was Governor of Arkansas
Miller was divorced from her first husband but still known at the time as Sally Perdue. She says she was drawn to Clinton's energy, his sense of humor and his 'intensity.' The then-Governor would arrive at her back door for their trysts
The book promises to recall a series of unguarded conversations in which she claims Bill revealed his wife's preference for female lovers.
As far-fetched as her accusations may appear, she remains convinced that Hillary Clinton is behind a plot to silence her ahead of the November election.
But it will also lay bare what Miller,  describes as a decades-long Democrat campaign to discredit and harass her that began when she first revealed the affair in 1992, a campaign she claims has now reached such perverse depths that she actually fears for her life.
The twice-divorced 77-year-old took to social media in recent weeks to post an extraordinary warning that if she dies by 'suicide' no-one should believe it.
When Daily Mail Online visited Miller at her Arkansas home she insisted she had been stalked, spied upon and plagued by anonymous phone calls since word of her memoir leaked out.
'She doesn't care what I say about Bill, that's old news,' Miller told Daily Mail Online. 'But I think she wonders what Bill told me. I think she wonders how much I know about her that came from Bill.
'With the election coming up she can't afford any sort of loose end. She's the closest thing you can imagine to Al Capone. I don't think she is going to rest until she puts me to rest.'
And what of those accusations so insulting or damaging that a potential Presidential candidate would unleash her operatives to intimidate or even bump off an elderly lady?
'Hillary is a lesbian,' Miller claims, reigniting a lingering but unsubstantiated rumor that has dogged the former First Lady for years.
With a string of achievements including the Miss Arkansas 1958 title, a 1970 jazz album entitled I've Gotta Be Me, and a career in TV, radio and PR, Miller particularly objects to being portrayed as a 'bimbo'
Sally Miller, second from right, in 1958, as a contestant for Miss America, where she placed in the top 10. Miller is writing a book on her life and the involvement with the Clintons, including details of her affair with Bill
Miller, left, being crowned Miss Pine Bluff in 1958. When Daily Mail Online visited Miller at her Arkansas home she insisted she had been stalked, spied upon and plagued by anonymous phone calls since word of her memoir leaked out
Hillary Clinton is behind a plot to silence Miller ahead of the November election, the ex Miss Arkansas claims.  'Let's just get down to the facts,' says Miller. 'Firstly, Bill didn't mind telling me that Hillary doesn't like sex'
'Let's just get down to the facts,' she adds. 'Firstly, Bill didn't mind telling me that Hillary doesn't like sex.
'I take him at his word and he told me she liked females more than men. She was the child of a more progressive community. She was exposed to all the liberals, she was a flower child.
'Hillary does drugs too, that's the only time that she would entertain the idea - again, this is what Bill told me.
'While we were intimately involved he would say things like "gosh you need to come over and teach Hillary a few things".
'He said she probably wouldn't take to that idea much.
'I wasn't a spy, I wasn't looking for things I could remember 20 years later.'
Miller remains fit and active, although her fear of the 'Clinton machine' weighs heavily.
The mother-of-two sleeps with a loaded semi-automatic within arm's reach and rarely leaves home without her four-year-old Australian Shepherd, Cubby Bear.
Miller,  a former singer and radio host known as Sally Perdue, is preparing to dish the secrets of their pillow talk in a tell-all memoir.
It was a very different scenario in August 1983, when a 44-year-old Miller left her back door ajar so her seven-years' younger paramour Bill could be chauffeured to the rear of the property before slipping inside unnoticed.
The pair had met a decade earlier at parties and political functions when Miller was a senate aide at the Arkansas State Capitol and Clinton was preparing for his unsuccessful 1974 run for the House of Representatives.
So when she needed help getting a vintage steam train project off the ground, she sought out her former friend, by now in his second stint as Governor.
'I left my number with his secretary,' recalled Miller. 'He was playing golf but within three hours he'd called me.
'He said "I'm going to be leaving here in a little while, why don't I just drop by and let's see each other for old times' sake."
'We decided because of the positioning of the condo it might be better if he didn't come by the front door, there are some prominent people that live across by me.
Former Miss Arkansas, Sally Miller, in 1958, in one of her earliest modeling photos
'He never drove himself, it was a state trooper or someone on his staff. He parked in the park behind my house. I had a gate on the patio but he just had to lift the latch.
'The first night I just played the piano while he sang. He's not noted as someone who has a trained voice but we laughed, it was just kind of fun.
'Finally he said ''we didn't talk about what I came to talk about, so we're going to have to do this again sometime''. I had all my notes and pictures, all my ideas, all he had to do was call his parks and tourism gal and get her on this.
 Bill is not the most handsome man. But he makes you feel like you have an incredible body and on top of all that you're beautiful. There are not many men that can make a woman feel that way.
'But we dragged it out for about three months. And yes, we did go upstairs where the bedrooms were.'
Miller, who was divorced from her first husband but still known at the time as Sally Perdue, says she was drawn to Clinton's energy, his sense of humor and his 'intensity'.
Their clandestine meetings typically included Bill goofing around and playing his sax while Miller, a trained singer and musician, accompanied him on her piano.
He would sometimes unwind by smoking a marijuana cigarette. Miller claims that she saw Clinton produce a pouch of white powder on several occasions and snort lines off her coffee table.
'I don't do drugs and I don't smoke. But if you come into my house and say "gosh I've had a bad day" I wouldn't know how to stop you,' said Miller.
'Bill is not the most handsome man. But he makes you feel like your breasts are the right size, your legs are the perfect length, you have an incredible body and on top of all that you're beautiful. There are not many men that can make a woman feel that way.
'Do I make it a point to have affairs with married men, no. But most everyone in Arkansas assumed that their marriage was a business arrangement. 
'Bill never sounded like he was in love or locked into a loyal arrangement.'
Sally Miller, center, with her daughters Rosemond, left, and Myra, right
A letter from then Governor Bill Clinton dated June 28, 1984.  Their affair would remain a secret for nearly a decade until she went public on the Sally Jesse Raphael show in July 1992, a day after Clinton had been formally named by the Democratic Party as its Presidential candidate.
But while the future president was a born entertainer and charismatic companion, the sex itself failed to inspire.
'It wasn't that memorable. It was no big deal - think about that,' chuckled Miller. 'That's probably why he didn't have any confidence as a lover.
'He reminded me of a what a little boy would say to his momma. 'Is it OK if I put my hand there? Can I touch you here?' I've always preferred younger men but I've never had one who asked permission.'
She claims the affair ended abruptly in late 1983 when Miller revealed her intention to stand for mayor of her hometown, Pine Bluffs, as a Republican.
It would remain a secret for nearly a decade until she went public on the Sally Jesse Raphael show in July 1992, a day after Clinton had been formally named by the Democratic Party as its Presidential candidate.
Miller insists her name had already been leaked to the newspapers and news channels who hounded her day and night for the story.
But her decision backfired when she was faced with a hostile New York audience packed with Democrat supporters and a largely skeptical media.
Clinton would face similar accusations from a series of women throughout his campaign and ensuing Presidency in what was coined the 'eruption of bimbos'.
Sally Miller's license plate she had on her car after winning the 1958 Miss Arkansas pageant
But at the time of her disastrous TV appearance, Miller's story was either ignored or dismissed as smears by the mainstream US media.
Worse still, it prompted what she describes as an extraordinary Democrat vendetta that has seen her threatened, fired from jobs and followed - quite literally - to the other end of the world.
It began In August 1992, she claims, with a sinister invitation from Clinton operative who offered Miller a lucrative federal job if she promised to be a 'good little girl' – an offer she declined.
'They said 'if you don't take the job, we know where you go running and we'll break your pretty little legs,'' Miller claims. 'They said life isn't going to be fun anymore - and they meant it.'
Miller later found the back window of her jeep shot out from the inside with a handful of shot gun cartridges left strewn across the back seat.
When she reported it to the FBI she says she was nearly knocked down outside their office by a car with no plates.
Miller claims she was also contacted out of the blue and pestered for dates by a string of young married suitors, including a doctor and a handsome lawyer called 'Eric'.
'Eric was a plant from the Democrats in Arkansas,' Miller claims. 'He admitted it. I think they wanted me to be caught in another liaison and so they could say she's a scarlet woman.'
In 1994 she attempted to leave the controversy behind by accepting a radio job broadcasting for the blind in China, a country she loved and where she enjoyed an elevated profile having become the first woman to run the entire length of the Great Wall four years earlier
In 1994 she attempted to leave the controversy behind by accepting a radio job broadcasting for the blind in China, a country she loved and where she enjoyed an elevated profile having become the first woman to run the entire length of the Great Wall four years earlier
'Bill is not the most handsome man. But he makes you feel like your breasts are the right size, your legs are the perfect length, you have an incredible body and on top of all that you're beautiful. There are not many men that can make a woman feel that way,' Miller tells Daily Mail Online
'Bill is not the most handsome man. But he makes you feel like your breasts are the right size, your legs are the perfect length, you have an incredible body and on top of all that you're beautiful. There are not many men that can make a woman feel that way,' Miller tells Daily Mail Online
Her career suffered too, she alleges. She says the Democrats made a mysterious $1 million donation to her alma mater, Lindenwood College, Missourii. She was later fired from their admissions department.
In 1994 she attempted to leave the controversy behind by accepting a radio job broadcasting for the blind in China, a country she loved and where she enjoyed an elevated profile having become the first woman to run the entire length of the Great Wall four years earlier.
But her new life went awry, she says, when the Clintons arrived in Beijing for a 1998 state visit and her hotel room was mysteriously raided by Chinese soldiers and what she says were American agents, apparently looking for drugs and weapons.
BILL'S WOMEN WHO HAUNT HILLARY
Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer who says Bill Clinton groped her in an Oval Office hallway in 1993 when she came to him seeking a paid job, says she has agreed to become a paid national spokeswoman for an anti-Clinton group being created by operative Roger Stone 
Paula Jones, the former state employee whose allegations of sexual harassment dogged President Bill Clinton throughout his administration, was photographed appearing at a rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump in Little Rock. 

Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky's confidante and who worked as a White House staffer says that Hillary Clinton not only knew about her husband's exploits, 'She made it her personal mission to disseminate information and destroy the women with whom he dallied.'

Juanita Broaddrick, who claims that she was raped by Bill Clinton in an Arkansas hotel 38 years ago, says that she was cornered by Hillary as she was helping at a Clinton fundraiser and was given a thinly-veiled warning to keep her mouth shut.

Maria Crider, who worked on Bill Clinton's first political campaign, said power-hungry Hillary torpedoed the torrid affair that threatened to destroy her master plan to become president with anonymous phone calls, fears of stalking and veiled threats.
'They told the manager I was a drug dealer who had fled the United States to avoid prosecution,' she claims. 'It was a warning that they could find me anywhere, anyplace, anytime.'
Like much of Miller's dark account, there is nothing to substantiate this episode other than the trove of old documents, letters and journals she promises to include in her memoir, 'The Beauty Queen: Let No Deed Go Unpublished'.
And yet her story brings to mind the accounts of other alleged Clinton accusers, such as Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, who say they were harassed by Democrat aides and maligned as sluts to cover the philandering President's tracks.
Maria Crider, who had an affair with Clinton when she worked on his first political campaign, said Hillary destroyed the relationship - even though she was not yet married to Bill - with anonymous phone calls and veiled threats.
With a string of achievements including the Miss Arkansas 1958 title, a 1970 jazz album entitled I've Gotta Be Me, and a career in TV, radio and PR, Miller particularly objects to being portrayed as a 'bimbo'.
She points the finger of blame squarely at Hillary and her powerful spin machine.
'Nothing happened in the Democratic Party when they were trying to get Bill into the White House that Hillary didn't approve,' Miller said. 'She was the motivator, his bodyguard, and she continued to target me after the election.
'There is a vengeful, spiteful ugliness that some women have for other women. And there is a certain type of women who just has it in her genes to be nasty.
'Hillary is just one of those women. And she's championing women's causes? She will be the ruination of America if she becomes President.'
In the three or four months since news of her memoir leaked on Facebook Miller says the long-standing vendettas has reignited.
She decided to post details on social media because she feels she's safer battling the Clintons out in the open where her ultimately death would provoke too much scrutiny.
'I'm sure I have Facebook friends that are spies and I'm sure the word got out to Hillary,' she said. 'I began to get unknown calls on my cell phone - three or four a week - but now it's almost every day.
'It's the same pattern they used in 1992, '93 and '94. I've watched cars following me down to the park. They are typically trucks or SUVs - all the windows are completely black.
'I pulled up beside one of them and walked over but he pulled away as soon as I got up close.
'I've been getting calls from 911 saying "Ms Miller we understand that there's an emergency and you're about to commit suicide". They always say it was a family member or a close friend but they can't give you the name.'
Miller has yet to find a publisher for her memoir – again, she suspects Democrat meddling -- but she insists she will self-publish if need be.
But does she really suspect the woman many believe will be the next President of the United States, a former Secretary of State lauded globally as a female role model, would resort to foul play to stop that happening?
''I think the Clintons are capable of anything. Do I live in fear, no - because I'm armed too, I'm prepared. You have to be when you think perhaps your life is being threatened.'
Former Miss Arkansas, Sally Miller, second from left, with friends in Beijing, China in 1994.
Former Miss Arkansas, Sally Miller, second from left, with friends in Beijing, China in 1994.

GOP showing signs of backing down from vow to block Obama’s Supreme Court nominee automatically

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www.washingtontimes.com
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and others have vowed to block any Obama nominee, saying the next president should select Justice Scalia’s replacement. (Associated Press) more >
President Obama called on SenateRepublicans Tuesday to give his eventual Supreme Court nominee a fair hearing in his bid to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, as cracks emerged in the Republican leadership’s position of automatically blocking any nominee.
“I expect them to hold hearings. I expect them to hold a vote,” Mr. Obama said at a press conference. “There’s no unwritten law that says it can only be done on off years.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and others including presidential candidates Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida have vowed to block any Obama nominee, saying the next president should select Justice Scalia’s replacement.
Mr. Obama blasted that rationale.
“This is the Supreme Court, thehighest court in the land,” the president said. “It’s the one courtwhere we would expect elected officials to rise above day-to-day politics. I understand the stakes. I understand the pressure that Republican senators are undoubtedly under. This would be a deciding vote. But that’s not how the system is supposed to work.”
Even before Mr. Obama stated his case, there were signs that Republican unity was wavering on the notion of blocking any nominee out of hand.
SenateJudiciary CommitteeChairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, didn’t rule out confirmation hearings and a vote by his panel on an Obama selection.
“I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decision,” Mr. Grassley said Tuesday in a conference call with Iowa radio reporters. “In other words, take it a step at a time.”
Asked whether he thought the controversy over filling the court vacancy might endanger his re-election chances this fall, Mr. Grassley said, “I think I have a responsibility to perform, and I can’t worry about the election. I’ve got to do my job as a senator, whatever it is. And there will be a lot of tough votes between now and the next election.”
His comments appeared to be a softening from a statement shortly after Justice Scalia’s death, when Mr. Grassley said it was “standard practice” not to nominate or confirm candidates for the Supreme Court in an election year.
“It only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the nextSupreme Court Justice,” Mr. Grassley said in a statement Saturday.
Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, voiced caution about blocking any Obama nominee automatically.
“I think we fall into the trap if [we] just simply say, sight unseen, we fall into the trap of being obstructionists,” Mr. Tillis said on Tyler Cralle’s radio show.
But Mr. Tillis added of the president, “If he puts forth someone that we think is in the mold of President Obama’s vision for America, then we’ll use every device available to block that nomination.”
A top aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, responding to Mr. Tillis’ comments, predicted that Mr. McConnell will eventually retreat from his stance of blocking any Obama nominee without a hearing.
“Sen. McConnell’s rash and unprecedented decision to deny aSupreme Court nominee a fair hearing and floor vote has put Republicans in an untenable position, so it is not surprising to see cracks appear so quickly,” said Adam Jentleson, Mr. Reid’s deputy chief of staff. “The next step in this process will be for Sen. McConnell to back down and give President Obama’s nominee a hearing and a floor vote. That’s a simple reality.”
The White House said Mr. Obama will nominate someone to fill the vacancy after the Senate returns from its recess next week. Justice Scalia, 79, died while on a hunting trip in Texas last weekend.
Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. said Mr. McConnell and other Republicans are making a mistake by vowing to block any Obama nominee, and they should “recalibrate immediately.”
“Mitch McConnell has been joined by [presidential candidates] Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump in saying the president’s nominee to thecourt should not be considered by theSenate,” he said. “That’s an awful lot of Republicans making a big mistake.”
The No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, Charles E. Schumer of New York, said he expects Mr. Obama to select a consensus candidate who could get bipartisan support and predicted that a “huge public outcry” would force Mr. McConnell to back down.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said, “Refusing to do anything means you’re voting maybe. That’s a cowardly way out.” In Richmond, Vermont, Mr. Leahy said the last time the court was down a jurist was during the Civil War.
But House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said he supports the idea of blocking any Obama nomination to the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court is not an extension of the White House,” Mr. Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The president has absolutely every right to nominate someone to the Supreme Court, but Congress as an equal branch also has every right not to confirm someone.”
Mr. Ryan said an election year is a poor time to make such an important decision.“We are knee-deep into a presidential election, and I think the precedent for not filling a Supreme Court vacancy in such a time is justified,” he said.
The speaker also said Mr. Obama’s nominees to the high court, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, have shown tendencies to support the president’s overreaching on executive power.
“The president has tried everything he can to empower the executive branch at the expense of the legislative one,” he said. “His Supreme Court nominees have all contributed to that, those that he has placed on the bench already. So not only does Congress have the authority to stop a nominee, it has an obligation to defend itself against a president and a radically altered court that would continue to seize its powers.”
Mr. Obama said Republicans are being hypocritical and that a delay forSupreme Court nominees in election years is “not in the constitutional text.”
“I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there,” he said.
Nearly all of the most vulnerableSenate Republicans support blocking a vote on any nominee, even as Democrats vow to make it a flashpoint in the battle for control of the upper legislative chamber.
Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania and John McCain of Arizona said they owe it to the American people to delay the nomination process until voters elect Mr. Obama’s successor.
As Mr. Obama pushes ahead with plans to nominate a successor toJustice Scalia, more attention is focusing on Attorney General Loretta Lynch, 56, as a possible candidate. Last year, she became the first black woman to hold the nation’s top law enforcement post.
“The fact that Lynch was vetted so recently for attorney general also makes it practical for the president to nominate her in relatively short order,” said Tom Goldstein, publisher of the SCOTUSblog. “There is some imperative to move quickly, because each passing week strengthens the intuitive appeal of the Republican argument that it is too close to the election to confirm the nominee.”
But Ms. Lynch drew criticism last year for defending Mr. Obama’s executive order on deportation amnesty. She also is under fire for her handling of the Justice Department’s probe into Hillary Clinton’s classified emails. She has resisted Republicans’ calls to appoint a special prosecutor to evaluate the matter.Nor was her confirmation process free of drama.
A former U.S. attorney in New York, Ms. Lynch was nominated by the president on Nov. 8, 2014, to replace Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., shortly after Republicans won control of the Senate in the midterm elections. Democrats offered to wait until Republicans took over the majority in January to consider her nomination.
Her confirmation process then became mired in political feuds over Mr. Obama’s executive action on deportation amnesty and an abortion provision in legislation against human trafficking. As the debate over Ms. Lynch’s confirmation grew more heated, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and a close ally of the White House, said Republicans were making her “sit in the back of the bus.”
The Judiciary Committee voted 12-8 in favor of her confirmation on Feb. 26, 2015. The full Senate confirmed Ms. Lynch by a vote of 56-43 on April 23, 166 days after the president nominated her.
The lone senator who didn’t vote wasTed Cruz, Texas Republican, who had scheduling conflicts. He voted against Ms. Lynch in a procedural vote and said the majority Republicans could have stopped her nomination.
Others on Mr. Obama’s short list include Judge Srikanth Srinivasan, 48, who was approved by the Senate on a 97-0 vote in 2013 for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Judge Jane Kelly, 51, also given unanimous Senateapproval in 2013 to the appeals court; Judge Paul Watford, 48, of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, formerly a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, 51, who is running in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
⦁ This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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Man Arrested in Scotland for Facebook Posts About Refugees - Breitbart

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by Allum Bokhari16 Feb 20160
16 Feb, 201616 Feb, 2016 Police havearrested a 40-year old man in Scotland over a number of allegedly “offensive” Facebook posts about refugees.
Police in Scotland said that a man had been held under the Communications Act, which bans “grossly offensive” and “menacing” posts on online platforms.
The Facebook posts in question, which were not released to the media, allegedly concerned comments about Syrian refugees from Rothersay, on the Scottish Island of Bute, where several refugee families have settled as part of the UK government’s settlement program.
A spokesman from the the Dunoon police station in Argyll said, “I hope that the arrest of this individual sends a clear message that Police Scotland will not tolerate any form of activity which could incite hatred and provoke offensive comments on social media.
This follows news in late January that police in the Netherlands were visiting the homes of citizens who made posts that were deemed overly-critical of the Dutch government’s policies towards refugees. It also follows Facebook’s announcement that it would work with European governments, particularly Germany, to track and clamp down on hostility towards migrants on the platform.
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