When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
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THE RESISTANCE
Conservative dipshit and once dead Breitbart protégé James O’Keefe - the idiot made a faux paus that toppled his own attempt to infiltrate a group funded by progressive billionaire George Soros because he couldn't hang up the phone, the New Yorker reported.
An audio has been floated around of O’Keefe’s call to the Open Society Foundations captures him identifying himself as “Victor Kesh” and leaving a message, only to tell an unidentified person about his plan because he failed to realize that he didn’t disconnect the line.
O’Keefe states in his voicemail to Dana Geraghty that, he “would like to get involved with you and aid what you do in fighting for, um, European values,” explaining that “Kesh” is a Hungarian-American.
After asking Geraghty for someone to contact and leaving a number, “Kesh” ends the call. But then O’Keefe can be heard telling someone, “Don’t say anything before I hang up the phone.”
O’Keefe then engaged in a 10-minute discussion about his actual plan regarding the group
“What needs to happen someone other than me to make a hundred phone calls like that,” he said.
At one point, “Kesh” says that he is opening Geraghty’s LinkedIn page in order to use the information to help ease his way into the Soros “octopus,” only to realize that doing so only reveals his own LinkedIn account to her.
“It was a little chilling to hear this group of men talking about me as a ‘point of entry,'” Geraghty said. “But — not to sound ageist — it was clear that these people were not used to the technology.”
She subsequently forwarded the voicemail to the foundation’s president, Chris Stone, who ridiculed their attempt to scam her.
“The Watergate burglars look good compared to these guys,” Stone said. “These guys can’t even figure out how to use an Internet browser, let alone conduct an undercover operation. You read the transcript and you can’t help but laugh. But the issues here aren't funny.
I am sure the ghost of Breitabart is proud James, and I' am sure you will see this as another accolade of success.
James O'Keefe, you are today's dumbest human in the world, congrats asshat!
Last night BIll Maher told the GOP what they didn't wasn't to hear - and that was that they are not going to be winning the Presidential election in November. He told them to punt, and that its ok to do so.
Maher compared the GOP - liking them to a filthy house where an old lady lived with a 100 cats who peed everywhere.
VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO
Maher dismantled the GOP for its current choice between two unpalatable potential presidential nominees.
“Either Ted Cruz — a man with all the appeal of Jared from Subway, minus the inspiring weight-loss story — or Donald Trump, the zombie candidate,” he said.
What the party should do, Maher argued, is just “punt” this year and play defense against Hillary Clinton.
Maher told the nutters to play defense. Since the frothy wing nuts want Hilary ginned up on charges, he told them that the best way to do that is to allow her to win the Presidency, and stated, "you can't impeach her if you don't elect her."
A day after a black man was punched in the face by a white Donald Trump rally attendee and then wrestled to the ground by police officers, Trump shrugged off any responsibility and expressed sympathy for the anger his supports feel.
Asked at Thursday’s Republican debate whether he might have created a tone of violence, Trump responded “I hope not. I truly hope not.” While saying he has not condoned violence against protesters, he defended his supporters as having “tremendous passion.”
“When they see protesters, when they see what’s going in on the country, they have anger. They don’t like seeing bad trade deals, higher taxes, loss of their jobs.”
Violence by Trump supporters has been a recurring issue at his campaign events.
Moderator Jake Tapper noted that Trump has frequently egged on his supporters, “including February 23: ‘I’d like to punch him in the face,’ referring to a protester. February 27: ‘In the good ol’ days, they’d have knocked him out of seat so fast.’ February 1: ‘Knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, okay? Just knock the hell.” He also noted that Trump promised last month to pay for the legal fees of any supporter who roughs up a protester.
“We have some protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things,” Trump replied, “They are swinging, they are really dangerous and they get in there and start hitting people. And we had a couple big, strong, powerful guys doing damage to people — not only the loudness, the loudness I don’t mind. But doing serious damage.”
This is a prime example, the by-product if you will of low IQ humans listening to the daily red met bullshit of Fuckface Von Clownstick. For Trump to not condone this stuff, garners him asshole of the day.
Bill Maher said on Friday that he almost felt bad for the Republican Party with regards to Donald Trump — except he doesn't.
“They made a Faustian deal with the racist devil years ago and now those chickens are coming home to roost,” he said of the party bracing for the prospect of having Trump as its presidential nominee, while also mocking House Speaker Paul Ryan for claiming that the GOP “does not prey on peoples’ prejudices.”
“What about voter ID laws?” Maher asked. “What about once defending the guy who gets shot, the black guy, instead of the cop. Who are they kidding? This is the party they are and Trump is just the latest.”
Conservative author Matt Lewis tried to argue that Trump did not represent the party as a whole, pointing to Ryan, Sen. Marco Rubio and himself as people who represent a “solutions-based” conservative philosophy. VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO
Trump, Lewis said, was the product of a dumbing down of the GOP, who had injected “white identity politics” into his platform.
Maher scoffed at Lewis’ argument, saying that Trump’s ideas are actually “very not new.”
“It was called the Southern Strategy when Nixon did it,” Maher argued. “Reagan started his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It’s always been a winking campaign to get white people, mostly, who have a resentment to vote racially. Let’s not pretend this is new.”
“I would say that the Republican Party — at least if you look at the people who are running for president — are much more diverse,” Lewis fired back.
“The two Hispanics want to put other Hispanics on cattle carts and throw them out of the country,” Maher replied.
It hit me right after the last republican debate the other night– these guys are just the like bullies I knew in middle school! Donald on Cruz “He’s a liar” Cruz on Trump “..who the heck knows what he would do? Even Donald doesn’t know what he would do.”
Trump on Rubio:
“Little Marco, applies makeup with a trowel” then mocks him for needing to drink water and sweating too much”.
Back and forth, round and round. Robot Rubio, The spray tan Donald. Hair force one. Sorry, I know, lame ass (but true) puns. Remember the playground from 6th grade? Sound familiar? Testosterone was just starting. Fart joke, butt jokes, and yes…dick jokes.
So it came as a real surprise that the worst attack that followed days later was by Marco Rubio…”the Donald is 6’ 2’ and did you see his hands? They’re so small….you know what they say about men with small hands”
Yep, he went there. Are you kidding me GOP? This is your new “anointed one”. This first class a-hole just showed us how immature he really is. The same Florida senator who said, appearing on Fox and Friends back last June:
“We already have a president now that has no class. We have a president now that, you know, does selfie stick videos, that invites YouTube stars there, you know, people who eat cereal out of a bathtub.”
Calling him unfit to be President? Bingo Marco – You aren’t either; by your own standards no less! These morons can’t get out of their own way!
Then there’s Religious Liberty. Gov. Kasich went further than any of his rivals in dismissing — even belittling — the idea that businesses should be able to claim religious liberty and allow them not to cater to gay and lesbian couples.
“Tomorrow, maybe I won’t sell to somebody who’s divorced,” Mr. Kasich said, his voice rising.
“If you’re in the business of commerce, conduct commerce. That’s my view. And if you don’t agree with their lifestyle, say a prayer for them when they leave.”
Deafening silence fell across the stage. Republican talking heads almost exploded with that position the following day
With most republicans I know, they are ready for Rubio to be the prom king. So let’s play out the Marco campaign – Shouts from the floor in Cleveland – MARCO!...(from the far side of the arena) RUBIO. MARCO! RUBIO! I wonder, am I at another 6th grade pool party? Maybe Marco will invite all to play a game of stickball.
Your unfriendly neighborhood Tea bagger – he wants Trump. I kind of feel bad for The Donald. He’s been taking it on the chin, feigning not knowing who David Duke was, or having earpiece issues about why he should decline the white supremacy endorsement, So let’s give them a winning hashtag for the rest of the campaign - #feeltheorangeburn
Fuckface Von Clownstick’s campaign took an even uglier turn this week as one of Clownstick’s supporter was heard yelling “Sieg heil!” as a protester was dragged from the room by campaign security.
According to MSNBC, several supporters of Fuckface were screaming at protesters who were being manhandled and ejected from the rally held at the Westgate Hotel and Resort.
While it had previously been reported that one black protester was assaulted by security as a Clownstick supporter shouted, “Light that motherfucker on fire!” a reporter from MSNBC said a large middle-aged man shouted, “Sieg heil!” — a Nazi-era salute — while one protester was hauled away.
In video from NBC (see below), the shout can clearly be heard.
Another man — described as wearing a “glittering black suit” — was heard yelling, “He’s a Muslim! He’s a Muslim!” as a protester was escorted from the ballroom.
As the protesters were being hauled away, Fuckface Von Clownstick continued speaking to the crowd, complaining that the only time the media films the large crowds at his rally is when they are being interrupted by protesters.
DID TRUMP JUST SUGGEST THAT MUSLIM DATABASES ARE NEEDED?
Last night Rachel Maddow throttled Donald Trump and his campaign on Friday for refusing to debunk his apparent support for special “databases” and identification for US Muslims.
“Donald Trump is deep now into blaming the media for this whole scandal. Blaming the media for us reporting that he’s campaigning on the idea of watchlists and databases to register American Muslims,” she said. “And I know it’s fashionable and politically smart to blame the media, but this is important. And somebody’s gotta report this out. Somebody’s gotta do something other than standing there, agog, disbelieving that this is really the top tier of the Republican contest to try to be the next president of the United States of America.”
The real estate mogulsaid on Twitter that Yahoo News’ Hunter Walker introduced the notion of a Muslim database during their interview on Friday, while also endorsing the idea of a “watch list.” VIDEO COURTESY OF MSNBC
But Maddow noted that Trump has never said that he would refuse to implement such a policy if elected. As NBC reported last night, he said exactly the opposite and called it “good management.”
That lack of a definitive stand has opened Trump up to criticism from not only Democrats, but fellow Republican candidates, as well as both Muslim and Jewish groups.
On Friday, the Republican front-runner called into Fox News and complained that he was actually trying to respond to another reporter, while calling for a database for Syrian refugees. Maddow also pointed out that Trump made reference to an unidentified “thing we should start thinking about.”
“What exactly is the thing we should start thinking about?” she asked. “Could you please be clear about that? In the immortal words of Justin Bieber, ‘What do you mean?'”
U.S. Conservative wing-nut and presidential candidate Ben Carson is under attack for “embellishing” key elements of his biography, lashed out at critics during a debate on Tuesday and said he did not like being “lied about.”
Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has faced a series of reports in the past week casting doubt on his stories about his violent outbursts as a youth and a scholarship he said he was offered to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“I have no problem with being vetted,” Carson said. “What I do have a problem with is being lied about and having that put out there as true.”
Carson, 64, was in the spotlight in the fourth Republican presidential debate, having risen to the top of opinion polls. He questioned why Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton had not been subjected to a similar level of media scrutiny.
“We have to start treating people the same and finding out what they really think,” he said. “People who know me know I’m an honest person.”
He spoke during a debate among leading Republican presidential candidates about economic policy. Several agreed they would oppose raising the federal minimum wage, saying it would hurt small businesses and reduce jobs.
With income inequality looming as an election issue, thousands of protesters took to the streets across the United States earlier in the day to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage for fast food workers.
“Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases,” Carson said. “I’m interested in making sure that people can enter the job market.”
All of the Democratic presidential candidates including Clinton, 68, have called for an increase in the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is now $7.25.
But Republican real estate magnate Donald Trump, 69, said a rise in the minimum wage would put businesses in the United States at a disadvantage with foreign competitors.
“We are a country that is being beaten on every economic front,” Trump said. “We cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world.”
Tuesday’s debate comes at a critical time in the race for the Republican nomination in the November 2016 election, with Carson and Trump fighting to hold their spot atop the polls and Florida Senator Marco Rubio trying to build on the momentum of his last strong debate performance.
Carson has faced a rough week of scrutiny about whether he embellished key aspects of his biography, while Rubio, 44, is under pressure to show he can fight off recent criticism of his inexperience as he tries to unseat fellow Floridian Jeb Bush as a favorite of the party’s mainstream.
Rubio also said he would oppose an increase in the minimum wage.
“If you raise the minimum wage, you are going to make people more expensive than machines,” said Rubio, who has not led opinion polls in any early voting state, and lags Bush, a 62-year-old former governor, and others in fund-raising.
In an earlier debate on Tuesday involving four lower-polling Republican candidates, several accused the Federal Reserve of keeping U.S. interest rates low for political reasons and one called for replacing Fed chair Janet Yellen.
“The Fed should be audited and the Fed should stop playing politics with our money supply,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal tried to distinguish himself by repeatedly attacking Christie and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for failing to cut government spending during their tenures as governors.
Christie declined to take the bait, turning the debate back again and again to the need for Republicans to rally around a nominee who can defeat Clinton.
Clearly from all these debates one thing is certain, none of these wing-nuts are worthy of having access to nuclear key codes!
Attempting to dismiss questions about a reported incident in his youth when he claimed he attempted to stab a friend, aspiring GOP presidential contender Ben Carson blamed reporters for getting the story wrong, reports the Washington Post.
After Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast pointed out that Carson’s story of attempting to stab a friend when he was 14 has evolved over the years, Carson said the story changed because reporters “record it in different ways.”
According to Carson, the retelling of the story is a like a game of “telephone.”
“For one thing, it happened 50 years ago — half a century ago,” Carson explained. “For another thing, when people record what I’ve said, they record it in different ways. When you’ve got something from 50 years ago that’s told by many different people, it’s sort of like the party game where you whisper to people sitting in a circle. When it gets to the original person, it’s very different.”
The problem for Carson is that the accounts of his story have varied depending upon which of the books he personally authored someone is reading.
As Resnick noted, Carson wrote in “Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence,”: “One afternoon when I was fourteen, I argued with a friend named Bob. Pulling out a camping knife, I lunged at my friend. The steel blade struck his metal belt buckle and snapped.”
Depending upon which book of Carson’s you are reading, Carson ran away afterward in shame, his best friend ran away in fear, it happened in two different homes or at school, and either a pocketknife or a camping knife was used. In yet another version, the knifing victim is identified only as a classmate instead of his good friend “Bob.”
Each recounting does lead to Carson finding God afterwards.
White billionaires born into massive privilege aren’t usually known for their rags-to-riches tales, but Trump is trying to sell one to the American public. Or, at least, to Matt Lauer.
In a recent interview, the Donald told NBC, “My whole life really has been a ‘no’ and I fought through it. It has not been easy for me, it has not been easy for me. And you know I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.”
This bit of deluded runaway privilege was too good for Stephen Colbert to pass up, so he took time out Wednesday night to mock the GOP ex-frontrunner.
“Clearly, this is an inspiring tale of a young man made good,” Colbert said. “The classic story of riches to richer. Donald was just a humble boy from the boroughs and wanted nothing more than to escape his provincial life and make his way in the big city… Donald dared to venture into a land he didn’t own.”
Donald Trump has long tried to sell a tale of scrappy, self-made man, but it has been exposed over and over again as largely bogus.
Reality is, that 99 percent of this country eke by without a penny from mom or dad, let alone a million dollars.
Late last night RNC Chair Reince Priebus was crying about following the CNBC Republican debate. Sen. Ted Cruz decided to use up all of his time whining about the nonexistent, so-called "liberal media' when asked about his desire to shut down the government rather than compromise on a budget deal by moderator Carl Quintanilla.
After he'd filibustered and used the time to grandstand and call the media and Democrats names, he was upset they didn't want to give him more time to finally answer their question.
"Congressional Republicans, Democrats and the White House are about to strike a compromise that would raise the debt limit, prevent a government shutdown, and calm financial markets of the fear that a Washington crisis is on the way. Does your opposition to it show you're not the kind of problem-solver that American voters want?" CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla asked the presidential candidate.
"This is not a cage match. And you look at the questions -- Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues," Cruz said to commanding applause from the audience.
"Do we get credit for this one," Quintanilla asked Cruz?
"And Carl, I'm not finished yet. The contrast with the Democratic debate, where every thought and question from the media was, which of you is more handsome and why?" Cruz asked and then paused to cough.
"You have 30 seconds left to answer should you choose to do so," Quintanilla told the candidate.
"Let me be clear," Cruz said. "The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense, than ever participant in the Democratic debate. That debate reflected a debate between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks."
"Nobody believes that the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primary," Cruz said.
"The questions being asked shouldn't be trying to get people to tear into each other, it should be what are your substantive solutions to people at home," Cruz said before getting cut off.
"I asked you about the debt limit and got no answer," Quintanilla said. "You want an answer to that question?" Cruz asked. "I'd be happy to answer your question."
Cruz was interrupted this time by John Harwood who said "we're moving on." "Senator [Rand] Paul, I've got a question for you," Harwood said in his attempt to move on.
"So you don't actually want to hear the answer, John?" Cruz called out the anchor.
"You don't want to hear the answer, you just want to incite insults."
"You used your time on something else," a dismissive Harwood said.
"You're not interested in an answer," Cruz scolded.
"I'm interested in an answer from Senator Paul," Harwood retorted.
"Let me say something at the outset," the Senator from Texas said. "The questions asked in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media."
Once again Cruz avoids having to answer a tough question, all the while bitching about media bias. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum when Cruz attacked CNBC for their "liberal media," biased questioning.
While the fantasy football question was a bit absurd, most questions were legitimate attempts to get these clowns to clear their extreme ideology on the record, instead they chose to whine about being picked on and not being fair. Yet again, complaining about being America being toPC [politically correct] and then expecting to be treated with PC queries.
Two-thirds of North Carolina Republican voters would support immediately impeaching Hillary Clinton if she’s elected president, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Conducted by Public Policy Polling, the survey drew from the responses of 425 self-identified Republicans likely to vote in the 2016 presidential primary. Along with various questions about the Republican candidates, it asked voters if they would either “support or oppose impeaching Clinton the day she takes office.”
Sixty-six percent of respondents said they would support immediate impeachment for Clinton, while only 24 percent said they would oppose it. Ten percent said they were not sure, according to the poll.
Impeachment is not the removal of a president from office — rather, it’s the formal process of accusing a public official of unlawful activity, which may or may not lead to removal from office.
Tuesday’s poll did not ask its Republican respondents why they would support impeachment for Clinton, though it likely has something to do her use of a private email server while Secretary of State.
Though the Justice Department has not found evidence of wrongdoing on Clinton’s part, prominent Republican politicians have been frequently accusing her of criminality. Presidential candidate Donald Trump called her actions “criminal”; presidential candidate and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Clinton was “literally one email away from going to jail.”
Republicans in Congress have also been using Clinton’s emails to try and prove that she mishandled the events leading up to and following the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Those Republicans have undertaken eight separate Congressional investigations into Clinton for that purpose. None have found substantive evidence to warrant an official accusation of wrongdoing by the Department of Justice.
The idea that Clinton should be impeached on her first day of office is not new. Rep. Mo Brooks recently suggested Clinton should be impeached for her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Unfortunately for Brooks and the majority of North Carolina Republicans, however, impeachment does not seem like a reality as a sitting presidents can not be impeached for alleged crimes that occurred before they were elected.
The unfettered ignorance of republicans in North Carolina is overwhelming.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, GOP presidential contender — and recent Iowa frontrunner — Ben Carson compared women who decided to have abortions to slaveowners who “thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave.”
The discussion came after host Chuck Todd asked if life began at conception, to which Carson answered “I believe it does.” Todd asked whose right should be superseded — the mother or the child.
“In the ideal situation, the mother should not believe that the baby is her enemy, and should not be looking to terminate her baby,” Carson said. “Things are set up in such a way that the person in the world who has the greatest interest in protecting her baby is the mother.”
Carson said “purveyors of a vision” have been allowed to “make mothers believe that baby is her enemy and that they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?
Todd asked what happens if someone has an unwanted pregnancy — should they have a right to terminate it?
No. Think about this. During slavery — and I know that’s one of those words you’re not supposed to say, but I’m saying it. During slavery, a lot of the slaveowners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave. Anything that they chose to do. And, you know, what if the abolitionists had said “I don’t believe in slavery, I think it’s wrong, but you guys do whatever you want to do.” Where would we be?
In 2013, Carson compared the Affordable Care Act to slavery, saying it was the worst thing that happened to America since slavery, adding “it is slavery, in a way.”
Slavery was a brutal system that trapped millions and millions of people in bondage for over 200 years. Obamacare is a law that Congress passed which has helped 17.6 million people get health insurance through the private insurance market and existing government health care programs.
Earlier this year, Carson revived the conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood concentrated their clinics in black neighborhoods as a “way to control the population.”
Todd then asked about an interview with Yahoo! News’ Jon Ward wherein Carson would not say whether he wanted to see Roe v. Wade overturned. “I favor life. That’s what I favor,” Carson had said in response to questions about the case. “It means that we will try to protect human life because all people in our country have a right to the protections of the law,” he said describing the Supreme Court justices he’d appoint — those who “believe in life” and “understand that a baby in the uterus is a human being and is protected by the Constitution.”
Carson went farther than that on overturning the case on Sunday. “I would like to see it done in the right way,” he said, again mentioning an examination of the judges he would appoint, “how have they behaved, who have they associated with, rather than what they say in an interview.”
On the court case, Carson said “ultimately I would love to see it overturned.” Asked whether that would contained exceptions, Carson said “I’m a reasonable person, and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen.” To Carson, an abortion in the case where the life or health of the mother is threatened was “extraordinarily rare situation” but that if that “rare” situation occurred “I believe there’s room to discuss that.” He said he “would not be in favor of killing a baby” that came about because of rape or incest.
He pointed to the “many stories” of people who have led “useful lives” after being born as a result of rape or incest.
Ben Carson has surged ahead of Donald Trump in recent Iowa polls, with Chris Wallace calling him the frontrunner there, citing an 84 percent favorability rating in a Quinnipiac poll on Fox News Sunday.
Iowa Republican voters find many of Carson’s extreme statements attractive, according to a recent Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll. However, one area of his biography that repels them is the fact that he conducted research using tissue from aborted fetuses.
Chuck Todd asked Carson about his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric, such as about the Holocaust and guns and his accusation that Obama is a psychopath.
“As people get to know me, they know that I’m not a hateful, pathological person like some people try to make me out to be,” he said.
Chuck Todd asked why he so easily went to Nazi metaphors, like referring to the Gestapo when talking about health care. Carson said some rabbis had told him recently that he was “spot-on,” and blamed the media for being shallow and not thoughtful about his full meaning.
CONSERVATIVE LOONY BIRDS PAT WAYMAN AND STEVEN R. FIELDS
A Florida county is considering changes to its charter review board after two elected members have focused on punishing political enemies through extralegal tactics instead of government business.
The Sarasota County charter review board typically proposes minor changes to the county charter when they meet three times a year, but critics say two of its members — Pat Wayman and Steven R. Fields — have been using their positions to usurp authority from other elected officials, reported the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
The pair have voted to establish a “people’s common law grand jury,” which sovereign citizens and other anti-government extremists have proposed to investigate and prosecute government officials for treason — which, as they frequently point out, carries a potential death penalty.
“Take a look at the French Revolution and what took place there,” said Mike Bolam, who has attended charter review board meetings to support the common law grand juries.
The board voted 4-4 in May to study a proposal by Rodger Dowdell, a Tea Party activist who denies being a sovereign citizen but, nonetheless, spouts sovereign citizen rhetoric.
“Grand jury powers come from God,” Dowdell said, advocating a return to the post-Revolution legal system where there were no police departments and judges rode horseback to hear cases brought by groups of 25 citizens.
Most importantly, he told the Herald-Tribune, those rulings would be kept out of reach of presidential and even U.S. Supreme Court authority.
“A people’s common law grand jury can, without any probable cause, go into any nook or cranny of government — local, state or federal — research anything that’s going on and root out corruption,” Dowdell said. “We want to government to recognize the contract we call the constitution, and start obeying the law. It’s very simple.”
His proposal failed due to the tie vote.
Tea Party activists have been trying to set up common law grand juries, which don’t actually carry any legal authority, for years in hopes of convicting — and hanging — President Barack Obama for treason.
Dowdell, state coordinator of the right-wing National Liberty Alliance, claims a common law grand jury was already operating in Manatee County, Florida, but he offered no proof.
“I can’t talk about it,” he said. “Everything is secret. In order to keep innocents who may be investigated from being damaged, whatever a grand jury does is secret.”
Wayman, the charter board member, posted a petition Oct. 12 on her Facebook page calling for Obama’s arrest on murder and treason charges, and she has also posted videos questioning whether mass shootings were staged in Sandy Hook and Oregon.
She also promotes the pro-gun extremist III Percent group and warns against a United Nations takeover of the United States through its non-binding Agenda 21 agreement.
Fields, the other charter board member, expresses conservative political views that are a bit more mainstream — with posts expressing his love for guns, law enforcement, the military, Glenn Beck, Andrew Breitbart and Ronald Reagan — but he also voted for Dowdell’s measure.
“If someone brings an idea that we can do, that’s something we should take a look at,” Fields said.
“I’ve seen the federal government grabbing more rights away from people. They bribe states into federal control. The Charter Review Board should not be acting like the County Commission and protecting the status quo. And I don’t think (the people’s common law grand jury) has anything to do with sovereign citizens.”
The other members of the board are also unaware of the links between common law grand juries and the sovereign citizen movement — which federal authorities consider a domestic terrorist threat.
“That’s the antithesis of what I’m all about,” said Donna Barcomb, the Republican chairwoman of the charter review board, told the Herald-Tribune. “I don’t think board knew anything about that concept. It was a group of individuals who presented a concept to the board. That’s what the Charter Review Board does — not leaning one way or another. Frequently, the board will look at something and determine if it’s appropriate or in the best interests of the county. For the most part, and I include myself in this, we’re completely ignorant about the concepts.”
She said the charter board could recommend a ballot initiative that would put Sarasota County in line with all other Florida counties, which appoint charter board members instead of electing them.
However, just about 200 miles north, sovereign citizens are threatening to arrest or physically harm elected officials in Dixie County, Florida — where a Tea Party activist was arrested after trying to turn a legitimate jury into a common law grand jury.
“I’m getting harassing emails and threatening faxes saying they’re going to arrest me,” said Dana Johnson, the clerk of courts, told the Herald-Tribune. “This one says they want info on bonds and oaths. There are further demands. I’m concerned about my safety. The local sheriff has alerted (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) and the FBI. Anytime they come up on our public agenda we have security with us at all times.”
“Once Trussell got selected to serve on a legitimate grand jury, it became the perfect storm,” Johnson said. “From that point, he’s taken it on his own authority to create a sovereign citizen board of common law grand jurors. I am constantly scared.”
The Dixie County sheriff, who said he’s known Trussell all his life and is acquainted with Dowdell, said the anti-government activists had asked him to help with their indictments.
“I said any order has to be signed by a judge — whether it’s a warrant or whatever — it’s got to be a legal court document,” said Sheriff Dewey Hatcher. “They ‘indicted’ everyone from the governor and (Attorney General) Pam Bondi on down to the president of our school board, and they said the school board attorney should be fired.”
The sheriff said he has not arrested anyone in connection with those indictments.
Paul Ryan, who has said repeatedly he does not want to be House Speaker – will now consider the position -but only if the all Republican House members, including the hard-line “Freedom Caucus,” agree to a series of demands.
What the Freedom Caucus wants
The Freedom Caucus, which consists of about 40 members, had been demanding that potential candidates for speaker make a detailed set of substantive commitments in exchange for their support. Kevin McCarthy wouldn’t agree to these, so the Freedom Caucus endorsed another candidate. McCarthy was then forced to drop out because he didn’t have enough support to be elected speaker.
McCarthy had good reason to resist. Although Freedom Caucus members say they want “process reforms,” they are actually seeking a series of commitments from a potential speaker candidates that would send the country over a cliff.
For example, they want the next speaker to refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless it is tied to cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This is something the Democrats in Congress and President Obama would never agree to, potentially setting up the country for catastrophic default.
First, Paul Ryan refuses to agree to anything in advance of being elected speaker. He will not pre-commit to anything the Freedom Caucus wants.
Second, He wants the Freedom Caucus to publicly endorse him for speaker anyway. This would require four-fifths of the Freedom Caucus to vote to support him.
Third, he want the Freedom Caucus to agree to rule changes that would vastly limit their power moving forward. Specifically, he wants to eliminate their ability to oust a sitting speaker by making a motion to “Vacate The Chair.” This is where, fundamentally, the Freedom Caucus derives much of their power.
How the Freedom Caucus, and the right wing, is reacting to Paul Ryan’s demands….Not well.
There are 40 members of the Freedom Caucus, so the ultimate outcome is still in doubt. They will be under severe pressure from the Republican establishment to reverse course and support Ryan. But the early signs for Ryan are not positive.
During the latest stop in his media tour to defend his brother’s actions as president, Jeb Bush asked on CNN Sunday if anyone actually blames his brother for the attacks on 9/11, saying if they do, “they’re totally marginalized in our society.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper pushed back, asking Bush about the Republican Party’s double standard.
“Obviously Al-Qaeda was responsible for the terrorist attack of 9/11,” Tapper said. “But how do you respond to critics who ask if your brother and his administration bear no responsibility at all, how do you then make the jump that President Obama and Secretary Clinton are responsible for what happened at Benghazi?”
The younger Bush bumbled and stumbled with his answer.
“Well I, it’s the question on Benghazi which is hopefully will now finally get the truth to it, is: was that, was the place secure?” he said, clearly flustered. “They had a responsibility, Department of State, to have proper security.”
Bush pointed out that “it’s what you do after that matters” when it comes to leadership, yet he could not explain why the Republican Party continues to attack Clinton for the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that left a U.S. ambassador dead.
The controversy began on Friday when Donald Trump asserted that the older Bush brother was president at the time of the 9/11 attacks. “When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,” Trump said. “He was president, O.K.?”
Jeb Bush then contested the seemingly indisputable comment, calling Trump’s comments “pathetic” and insisting “my brother kept us safe.” The New York Times reported that “[b]laming 9/11 on Mr. Bush is taboo for Republicans and has largely been off-limits for Democrats.” Yet Republicans will force Clinton to testify before a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi this week.
Trey Gowdy, the chair of the Select Committee on Benghazi, has at times aligned some very serious charge against Hillary Clinton in an October 7 letter. Gowdy asserted that Hillary Clinton disclosed the name of CIA source in an email sent from her private server. Gowdy wrote that the information was “some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but human lives.”
A letter from Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, reveals that the CIA reviewed the email in question and found that the information in question was not classified.
Cummings said that Gowdy’s accusation was “irresponsible” and suggested he owes “an immediate apology” to Hillary Clinton.
In response, Gowdy acknowledged the CIA’s view but said that “the name of the alleged source was redacted from the material cleared for public release by someone in the Executive Branch.” Cummings explained that the name was redacted “not for classification reasons, but to protect the individual’s privacy and avoid bringing additional undue attention to this person.”
The dustup comes on the heels of a number of embarrassing revelations from the Benghazi committee. Republican Major Leader Kevin McCarthy bragged that the committee had successfully driven down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Another Republican Congressman, Mark Hanna, said the committee was “designed to go after” Clinton.
Clinton is scheduled to testify in front of the committee this week.
While all eyes were on Donald Trump’s Twitter feed after he promised to live-tweet the Democratic debate, GOP candidate Mike Huckabee managed to win the night for the most outrageous tweet with an incredibly racist tweet aimed at Bernie Sanders.
After tweeting, “Racism exists because we have a sin problem in American, not a skin problem,” Huckabee followed up with … a racist joke:
Huckabee’s comment is based on a common slur against Asians, inferring that they would like to eat you pet dog.
If the GOP planned on making Beghazi one of the centerpieces of their eventual nominee’s campaign, they might want to shred those attack ad storyboards and think again after Hillary Clinton struck first with a devastating ad featuring House Speaker front runner Kevin McCarthy shooting his mouth off.
In a brilliant preemptive strike, Clinton released the ad, called “Admit,” excerpting comments by McCarthy owning up to the latest GOP-led Benghazi investigative committee was designed to harm her presidential chances.
Using a clip recorded last week on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, McCarthy is seen explaining that Hillary looked unbeatable Republicans and the GOP had to do something about it.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy explains. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee. What are her numbers today?”
Clinton Ad
It should be noted that the most recent in a long line of Benghazi committees has been “investigating” Clinton for sixteen months — at a cost of over $4.5 million dollars.
Hopefully the Republican National Committee can expect a bill from the U.S. Government for services rendered.
McCarthy should probably stop thinking about moving into John Boehner’s warm spot.
In a badgering and bullying performance that would have made House of Un-American activities interrogator Roy Cohn proud, a Republican congressman from Ohio interrupted the head of Planned Parenthood 19 times in five short minutes in a hearing on Tuesday.
Appearing at the GOP-led witchhunt — coordinated between virulent anti-abortion extremists and hard right conservatives — Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards repeatedly came under attack from the Republican-dominated committee.
Richards was invited to appear to answer questions about the highly-edited Planned Parenthood videos created by the anti-choice activists to force lawmakers to shut off funding to the healthcare providers that mainly serves low income women.
When Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan had his opportunity to perform for the cameras, he wasted no time going after Richards and bullying her over a statement she made immediately following the release of the first edited video.
Referring to Richards’ statement where she said, “This is unacceptable, and I personally apologize for the staff member’s [ Dr. Deborah Nucatola] tone and statements,” Jordan demanded to know which statements she was apologizing for.
“Ms. Richards, if the videos were selectively edited, heavily edited, if this was entrapment, if this was all untrue, why’d you apologize?” Jordan began.
Five seconds into Richards’ explanation, Jordan made the first of 19 interruptions he would make over the next five minutes, continually raising his voice and talking over the healthcare executive.
“That she, in my judgment, had a clinical discussion …” Richards said, before being interrupted by Jordan.
“Which statements were you apologizing for?” Jordan asked.
“It was really the situation she was in,” Richards said.
“That raises an important question — so is what you said in your video untrue? You weren’t really apologizing for the statements made? You can’t say, ‘I’m apologizing for statements in one video,’ and then not tell us what those statements were,” Jordan said.
Richards repeatedly explained that she meant that Nucatola’s comments were “inappropriate in a clinical setting,” with congressman badgering her in an ugly way, demanding she recall comments made by Nucatola that were not true — a claim Richards has never made.
