By NewsEditor
The feuding between Republicans Chris Christie and Rand Paul continued Tuesday as the senator from Kentucky cautioned that the governor from New Jersey was picking a fight with the wrong guy.
Tag Archives: senator
Remarks by the President on the Economy — Knox College, Galesburg, IL
Knox College
Galesburg, Illinois
12:13 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Galesburg! (Applause.) Well, it’s good to be home in Illinois! (Applause.) It is good to be back. It’s good to be back. Thank you. Thank you so much, everybody. (Applause.) Thank you. Everybody, have a seat, have a seat. Well, it is good to be back.
I want to, first of all, thank Knox College — (applause) — I want to thank Knox College and your president, Teresa Amott, for having me here today. Give Teresa a big round of applause. (Applause.) I want to thank your Congresswoman, Cheri Bustos, who’s here. (Applause.) We've got Governor Quinn here. (Applause.) I'm told we've got your Lieutenant Governor, Sheila Simon, is here. (Applause.) There she is. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is here. (Applause.)
I see a bunch of my former colleagues, some folks who I haven't seen in years and I'm looking forward to saying hi to. One in particular I've got to mention, one of my favorites from the Illinois Senate — John Sullivan is in the house. (Applause.) John was one of my earliest supporters when I was running for the U.S. Senate, and it came in really handy because he’s got, like, 10 brothers and sisters, and his wife has got 10 brothers and sisters — (laughter) — so they’ve got this entire precinct just in their family. (Laughter.) And they all look like John — the brothers do — so he doesn’t have to go to every event. He can just send one of his brothers out. (Laughter.) It is good to see him.
Dick Durbin couldn’t make it today, but he sends his best. And we love Dick. (Applause.) He’s doing a great job. And we’ve got one of my favorite neighbors, the Senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill, in the house, because we’re going to Missouri later this afternoon. (Applause.)
And all of you are here, and it’s great to see you. (Applause.) And I hope everybody is having a wonderful summer. The weather is perfect. Whoever was in charge of that, good job. (Laughter.)
So, eight years ago, I came here to deliver the commencement address for the class of 2005. Things were a little different back then. For example, I had no gray hair — (laughter) — or a motorcade. Didn’t even have a prompter. In fact, there was a problem in terms of printing out the speech because the printer didn’t work here and we had to drive it in from somewhere. (Laughter.) But it was my first big speech as your newest senator.
And on the way here I was telling Cheri and …read more
Controversial aide resigns from Sen. Paul’s staff
A close aide to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who co-authored the senator’s 2011 book has stepped down following weeks of controversy over his decade-long career as a pro-Confederate shock jock and secession advocate after the Washington Free Beacon reported on his provocative statements.
HUFFPOST HILL – Mike Enzi Needs A Hug
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Liz Cheney will challenge Mike Enzi for his Senate seat, though it’ll be hard to establish Wyoming residency from a bunker in an undisclosed location. Febreze sales skyrocketed as concerned liberals endured a heatwave in their solidarity hoodies. And bears are running amok because sequestration cut funding for park rangers, endangering campers and threatening our nation’s pic-a-nic basket supply. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, July 16th, 2013:
WYOMING: LIZ CHENEY TO CHALLENGE MIKE ENZI – What on Earth is left to be said when running to the right of Mike Enzi? (“In 2010 Mike Enzi SAID he loves America, but Mike Enzi supports compound adjectives, which have well-established Al-Qaeda ties. Mike Enzi: Bad for business, Bad for Wyoming.”) AP: “Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney will run against Wyoming’s senior U.S. senator in next year’s Republican primary, her campaign said Tuesday. Cheney, 46, is the elder of Dick Cheney’s two daughters. Her announcement is a political challenge unlike anything Wyoming has seen for years, maybe decades – Republicans in the state rarely challenge incumbents in national office. All three members of the state’s congressional delegation and all statewide elected officials are Republican. Yet Cheney’s interest in the seat has been an open secret for months. Last year, Cheney and her husband bought a home in the posh northwest Wyoming community of Jackson Hole. She has been in the public eye in recent years as a Fox News political commentator…US Sen. Mike Enzi also announced Tuesday he was planning to seek a fourth term, making clear he was seeking re-election bid more than six months earlier than he has in the past.” [HuffPost]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Liz Cheney to challenge US Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney says she will run against Wyoming’s senior U.S. senator in next year’s Republican primary. She announced her campaign in a statement Tuesday, and the news was confirmed by her campaign manager, Kara Hearn.
Spain PM vows to stay on amid corruption scandal
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Monday he had no plans to bow to opposition parties demands that he resign following newspaper publication of text messages in which he tells a former ruling party treasurer under a corruption investigation to “stay calm.”
“I am going to see out the mandate the Spanish electorate gave me,” he told reporters at a press conference with visiting Polish counterpart Donald Tusk. “This is a stable government that is going to fulfill its obligations.”
Rajoy, who says neither he nor other party figures received illegal payments, did not deny exchanging text messages with now jailed former Popular Party treasurer Luis Barcenas. He claimed the messages demonstrated that the state “was not bowing to blackmail. This is a serious democracy,”
A former senator, Barcenas was a top member of the party’s treasury for some 20 years until he resigned in 2009 on being named a suspect in a probe of illegal funding of the party.
The mobile phone text messages, published by El Mundo on Sunday, date from before Barcenas was sent to jail. In them, Rajoy tells the former treasurer to “stay calm” but advises him that the situation is difficult.
“Luis, nothing is easy. But we are doing what we can,” one message says. “Cheer up.”
Barcenas was jailed last month while awaiting possible trial on tax fraud and money-laundering charges after the National Court found he had held some 47 million euros ($61 million) in secret Swiss bank accounts. Speculation has been rampant since then that he might try to drag the party and the government into the scandal.
Both the Swiss bank account and the slush fund probes have rocked the party and the country. They come while Spaniards are obliged to cope with harsh austerity measures, increased taxes and tough economic reforms aimed at reducing debt and 27 percent unemployment.
Rajoy boasted that the reforms were beginning to pay off and that he was not about to allow his plans for more reforms to be derailed.
“Let no one think we are going to be distracted from getting Spain out of the crisis,” he said.
Barcenas, meanwhile, appeared again Monday before the judge investigating the alleged slush fund. Leading daily …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Chinese hackers hurt business, Congressional committee told
As senior officials from China and the United States wrap up a series of talks in Washington about an array of economic issues, across town members of Congress probed the extent of Chinese efforts to steal intellectual property from tech companies and other U.S. businesses.
“From defense contractors to manufacturing, no American company has been immune from the scourge of Chinese intellectual property theft,” says Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee.
Among the witnesses on hand was Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington who serves on the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a group that has been studying the economic impact of the problem, with a particular focus on China.
Gorton cited the commission’s estimate that cyber espionage and other forms of IP theft from foreign countries account for annual losses of $300 billion for U.S. companies. The group attributes between 50 percent and 80 percent of those losses to China.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
FBI: Miss. man arrested in suspicious letters case
The FBI says a Mississippi man whose home and business were searched as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others has been arrested in the case.
FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden says 41-year-old Everett Dutschke was arrested Saturday at his Tupelo home in connection with the letters, which allegedly contained ricin. They were sent last week to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.
Charges were initially filed against an Elvis impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
California man pretended to be African leader's son, feds say
A San Francisco man was in federal custody Friday on charges that he defrauded a Northern California real estate agent and his girlfriend out of $1.6 million by pretending to be the son of Congo‘s president.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco said Blessed Marvelous Herve persuaded the couple to forward him the money over four years with promises of repayment, lucrative commissions, and multi-million bonuses and a collection of impressive-looking documents that included a certificate of recognition from a U.S. senator.
Instead, they received excuses and demands for more funds, according to an affidavit prepared by the FBI agent who investigated the case.
The affidavit states that Herve told the Marin County real estate agent that his father wanted to buy luxury homes in the San Francisco Bay area, but that first he needed help recovering millions of dollars seized by the U.S. government, advances so he could rent limousines to tour potential properties, and additional financial assistance paying IRS debts and costs associated with other legal troubles.
It said that after the agent had given Herve about $635,000 and “was financially broke,” his girlfriend stepped in and provided another $970,000. At 41, Herve is the same age as Joseph Kabila, who has been president of the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2001.
Herve’s lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Edward Hu, declined to comment on the allegations.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
New York state senator sparks controversy with 'torture' tweet
A New York state senator has spurred controversy online by asking in a tweet if the Boston Marathon bombing suspect arrested Friday should be tortured.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/UJsQoAeTi-I/
Conservatives likely to retake power in Paraguay
Paraguay is poised to elect as its new president a conservative candidate from the party that backed strongman Alfredo Stroessner during 35 years of iron rule, returning the executive branch to the wealthy interests that have traditionally dominated this poor South American nation despite the election of a leftist ex-bishop in 2008.
Sunday’s vote is also an important milestone in Paraguay‘s attempt to regain the international acceptance it lost when neighboring nations objected to the fast-track removal of President Fernando Lugo. The expedited impeachment of Lugo last year conformed to Paraguay‘s constitution but was criticized by its neighbors as an “institutional coup” that threatened democracies around the region.
Regional blocs such as Mercosur suspended Paraguay‘s membership following Lugo’s ouster, but all signs indicate that Paraguay‘s neighbors will re-engage the country after the election to replace Federico Franco, who served out Lugo’s term and is not eligible to seek a new one.
Most polls indicate that tobacco magnate and soccer executive Horacio Cartes of the Colorado Party, which held power for 61 years before losing to Lugo at the polls, will win handily over his chief rival, Sen. Efrain Alegre of Franco’s Liberal Party.
A handful of candidates trail them, including Anibal Carrillo of the leftist Guasu Front coalition led by Lugo, who is seeking to return to politics as a senator.
A presidential candidate can be declared winner with a plurality, and there is no runoff.
Some likened the vote to the 2009 presidential election in Honduras that gave other nations reason to re-embrace the Central American country five months after President Manuel Zelaya was grabbed by soldiers while still in his pajamas and flown to Costa Rica.
“The election in Honduras ultimately was important,” said Gregory Weeks, a political scientist specializing in Latin America at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “It was contested and there might have been controversy, but what it did was it got the country sufficiently past the crisis to allow it to be accepted by all the rest of the region again.”
Whoever wins in Paraguay will have to deal with problems that have been endemic for decades in this landlocked nation of about 6.2 million people, most notably the yawning gulf between the haves and have-nots.
Paraguay is South America’s No. 3 producer of soy,
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/h9F-0S00j3Y/
Attorney: Scant evidence in Mississippi ricin case
The attorney for a man accused of mailing ricin-laced letters to the president and a senator says federal authorities have scant evidence linking her client to the crime.
Christi McCoy said after a court hearing Friday that the government has offered no evidence to prove her client, Paul Kevin Curtis, had possession of any ricin.
FBI Agent Brandon M. Grant testified during the hearing that he could not say if investigators had found ricin at Curtis’ home. McCoy says the evidence linking Curtis to the crime so far has hinged on his writings posted online.
So far, Curtis is the primary focus for investigators and the only person arrested in connection with sending those letters and a third threatening letter mailed to a judge.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/vKEtJGtsctk/
Scant evidence in Mississippi ricin case, attorney says
Federal authorities have scant evidence linking a Mississippi man to the mailing of ricin-laced letters to the president and a senator, his attorney says.
Christi McCoy said after a court hearing Friday that the government has offered no evidence to prove her client, Paul Kevin Curtis, had possession of any ricin or the seed from which it is extracted — castor beans. An FBI agent testified during the hearing that he could not say if investigators had found ricin at Curtis’ home, and McCoy said the evidence linking the 45-year-old to the crime so far has hinged on his writings posted online.
He is adamant that he did not do this, and she said she has seen nothing to prove him wrong.
Curtis was ushered into the courtroom before the hearing began in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles. He turned to face a young woman in the audience before the hearing and whispered, “I didn’t do it.”
Prosecutors had wanted to delay the hearing because searches of Curtis home and car had not been completed and DNA and other tests are pending.
Curtis’ brother Jack Curtis and 20-year-old daughter Madison Curtis watched the court proceeding and said afterward they are not convinced he did what he is accused of, even though they tried to keep an open mind about what would be presented.
“After hearing what I heard in this courtroom, it appears to me that the reason I haven’t been provided any evidence is there appears to be none that would link my brother directly to the charges that have been made,” Jack Curtis said after the hearing.
So far, Curtis is the primary focus for investigators and the only person arrested in connection with sending those letters and a third threatening letter mailed to a judge. But during a hearing Friday, FBI agent Brandon M. Grant testified that authorities were still trying to determine whether there were any co-conspirators.
As the hearing went on for roughly two hours, Grant said under questioning by Curtis’ attorney that he could not say whether any ricin had been found at Curtis’ home because the investigation was ongoing. Investigators had found a package they were interested in, but Grant said he did not know what was in it.
Grant also testified that there was one fingerprint on the letter sent to the judge, but that it didn’t match Curtis. He said several people handled the letter, and DNA and other tests are pending.
Curtis’ lawyer peppered the agent with questions in an attempt to show the government had little hard evidence, but Grant said people’s lives were at risk and it wasn’t like a fraud investigation in which authorities could gather more evidence before making an arrest.
Family and acquaintances have described Curtis as a caring father and enthusiastic musician who struggled for years with mental illness and who was consumed by trying to publicize his claims of a conspiracy to sell body parts on the black market.
Curtis is an Elvis impersonator and performed at parties. Friends and relatives also say he
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/89GOpRUKpCk/
Senator Lindsey Graham Says Suspend the Constitution For Boston Marathon Suspect And Designate Him An Enemy Combatant
Why is it that those who spend an inordinate amount of time professing their dedication and fealty to the United States Constitution seem to always be among the first to toss our founding document out the window the moment it becomes inconvenient to their desires?
FBI agent testifies in ricin-mailing case
An FBI agent has testified that he could not say whether agents have found ricin in the home of a Mississippi man accused of mailing the toxin to the president and a senator.
Agent Brandon M. Grant testified at a hearing Friday in Oxford, Miss., for Paul Kevin Curtis Prosecutors had asked to delay the hearing because the investigation was still ongoing. But a judge refused that request.
Grant stressed that the investigation is ongoing and that he does not know what may have been found with the hearing approaching two hours long. He says investigators searching the home did find a package they were interested in. But he did not yet know what was in it.
Grant says one fingerprint found on the letter sent to a Mississippi judge did not match Curtis.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/PTHBLUgX7QY/
Tom Coburn Falls Into Fountain At March Of Dimes Gala
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) saw his Wednesday evening take an unexpected turn.
CQ Roll Call reports that Coburn suffered an accidental fall into a fountain at the National Building Museum. The senator was attending the 31st March of Dimes Gourmet Gala, where he apparently fell into the water far enough to soak his clothes.
“That’s just a natural reaction to making the Time 100 list,” spokesman John Hart joked to CQ Roll Call.
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/tom-coburn-falls-fountain_n_3114237.html
Ricin suspect long known for angry online screeds
The Mississippi man suspected of sending deadly ricin in letters to President Obama and a senator from his home state is no stranger to local police, who have long viewed him as a paranoid conspiracy theorist prone to violence.
Paul Kevin Curtis, a sometime-Elvis impersonator who appeared in a Mississippi federal court Thursday and denied wrongdoing, has penned numerous rants accusing the government of hounding him. Many of his screeds have ended with the same line his letter to President Obama reportedly did: “I am Kevin Curtis and I approve this message.”
An affidavit released by the Department of Justice quotes Curtis’ letters to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and a judge as saying: “Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die.”
Curtis has claimed unknown forces blew up his car, interfered in his personal relationships and rigged Elvis impersonation contests. His rants, which have appeared at ripoffreport.com on his Facebook page seem to stem from 2001, when, as a cleaner hired by a morgue, he claims to have found bags of body parts, including a severed head. After reporting his discovery to authorities, Curtis came to believe he was made a “person of interest where my every move was watched and videotaped.”
On Ripoffreport.com, a forum for people to complain about purported scams, a man who identified himself as Curtis detailed in 2007 how the alleged incident began his spiral.
“3 Years of research lead to countless court battles, cops harassing me weekly, death threats, personal & financial losses, several thefts, my home burned down, car exploded, marriage dissolved & bankruptcy,” he wrote.
Curtis claims he sought help from elected officials, including Wicker, who was his congressman prior to being elected to the Senate in 2007. Wicker told CNN he has met Curtis and believed him to have “mental issues.”
Curtis reportedly wrote that he is on the “hidden front lines of a secret war” on his Facebook page hours before federal agents arrested him at his home in Corrinth Wednesday. He is being held in the Lafayette County Detention Center.
“My mother wants me to SHUT UP. My brothers fear me. My sister hates me.. . .I have lost most of my friends,” he wrote. “I have spent more than $130,000 on legal fees in 13.5 years.. . .They destroyed my marriage, they distracted my career, they stalked, they trolled, they came into my home, took my computers, had me arrested 22 times and guess what? I am still a thorn in the corrupt anals! I will remain here until Jesus Christ decides its time for me to go.”
The letters to Obama and Wicker, which bore Memphis postmarks, have tested positive for ricin. The ones sent to Washington were opened in a remote facility and no one appears to have been harmed by them. The FBI has said there is no indication of a connection between the letters and the Monday bombing in Boston that killed three people and injured more than 170. The letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8,
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/1kkW-rnIqE8/
Video: The Latest Demand From The LGBT Community
By Gabor Zolna
Is this nuts or what? And they call us arrogant!
From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/the-latest-demand-from-the-lgbt-community/
Senator Once Hired Ricin Suspect to Play Elvis
By John Johnson 
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166469/senator-once-hired-ricin-suspect-to-play-elvis.html
Tommy Tucker, North Carolina State Senator, Confronts Publisher At Public Hearing
By The Huffington Post News Editors
A Republican state senator in North Carolina told a newspaper publisher to “be quiet” during a public hearing Tuesday on legislation that could shift public notification of local government actions online and away from print.
A State and Local Government Committee of the state Senate held a meeting on legislation to allow county and municipal governments to publish public notices only on their websites became heated when a local newspaper publisher sought a recorded vote on the bill, the Raleigh News and Observer reported. Hal Tanner, publisher of the Goldsboro News-Argus, had argued that a voice vote showed the bill failing by one vote, while committee co-chairman Sen. Tommy Tucker (R-Waxhaw) said the bill had passed and the rules did not allow for a recorded vote. During the dispute with Tanner, Tucker proceeded to tell the publisher that it was not his place to comment.
“I am the senator, you are the citizen. You need to be quiet,” Tucker said.
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/17/tommy-tucker-north-carolina_n_3101083.html