Chicago mayor cuts Cuba vacation short to address weekend police shooting

Doesn't everyone go to Cuba or is it only available to the privileged few?

This article could be summed up in 5 words...We want a black mayor!

And of course in that eventuality, any black on black killing or cops shooting blacks will come to a screeching halt.

This is what happened over the Christmas holiday and we haven't made it to New Years yet.

Chicago's Holiday Toll Was 82 Shootings, 14 Deaths

This is the year to date figure:

This coming from a city having some of the most strict gun control laws on the books.

Chicago shooting victims

YEARLY TOTALS

JAN. 1, 2015 - DEC. 28, 2015

2,937

And the only ones that matter are the handful the cops shot.

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2015 file photo, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, accompanied by Interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante, speaks during a news conference in Chicago. (AP)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Monday he plans to cut his family vacation in Cuba short and return to the city to work on reforming the Chicago Police Department in wake of another deadly police shooting in which one person was killed by accident when police responded to a domestic disturbance call.

Kelly Quinn, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement to the Chicago Tribune Emanuel left for Cuba on Dec. 18 and wasn’t’ expected to return until Saturday but decided to return on Tuesday after officers responding to a domestic disturbance shot and killed Quintonio LeGrier, 19, and Bettie Jones, 55. Police said Jones was “accidentally” shot.

While Mayor Emanuel has been in constant contact with his staff and Interim Superintendent (John) Escalante, he is cutting his family trip short so that he can continue the ongoing work of restoring accountability and trust in the Chicago Police Department," Quinn said in a statement.

The shooting deaths take place days after the Justice Department opened a civil-rights investigation into Chicago police practices. It was the first deadly police shooting since the release of the video footage showing Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting and killing 19-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.

The pressure has increased on Emanuel ever since the release of the McDonald video. Protests calling for his resignation have occurred daily since November, with critics alleging that Emanuel didn’t release the video over political reasons. Emanuel was reelected as the city’s mayor in April.

The mayor has responded with a flurry of activity to stem the outcry, mixing short-term changes and long-term promises, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“The changes we have made in recent weeks are just a beginning—not an end,” Emanuel has said.

One of the most vocal critics of Emanuel has been Rev. Al Sharpton who said it was “unbelievable” that Emanuel didn’t return immediately to Chicago after the most recent shooting this past weekend.

“I think he’s gone beyond the point where he can even govern with the trust of the people,” Sharpton said on MSNBC’s “The Morning Joe.” Sharpton also called for Emanuel’s resignation, echoing almost daily protests around the city.

Had the mayor been DeMarcus Jones Sharpton's response would have been, "The mayor cannot be held responsible  for the reckless actions taken by the Chicago PD."

BTW...Al owes the IRS $4.5 million. If he was a member of the TeaParty he would be behind bars by now. Why was Wesley Snipes jailed for tax invasion and Al is not?

In the last month, Emanuel has fired his police chief and the head of the group that investigates police shootings in Chicago and formed a group to look at how to reform the department.

Emanuel, in all likelihood, will have three more years to get things right in Chicago, despite the outpour of anger in the city. The Wall Street Journal reported the city doesn’t have a process to recall him.

The mayor’s former political director, Thomas Bowen, told the Journal Emanuel is responding to the growing concerns of residents and people see him taking action.

“They see their political figures responding to the problem,” Bowen added.

Chicago mayor cuts Cuba vacation short to address weekend police shooting

Can't Vote But Campaigning Hard For Presidential Candidates

This is total bullshit.

Let me see now Killary is currently under investigation for her emails and Sanders was taking a lot of heat recently after his campaign staff accessed Clinton campaign voter data. And now a new low... they have freaking illegals working for them in their campaign!  How is this even permissible? 

Does anyone expect these two Democratic "Muchacho's" running for POTUS are really going to "protect and defend our border"?

This article want's you to buy into the sob story.

I bought into the last sentence. You better too.

"And whether Sisa's other dreams come true — of ultimately becoming a citizen and one day voting herself — could be determined by who wins the White House in 2016."

--------------------------------------------------------

Lorella Praeli speaking to reporters at the White House in Dec. 2014. Praeli, who arrived in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant aka illegal, is now a top official in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Praeli was hired in May while still illegal. She has since married an American and became a US citizen.

College student Belen Sisa loves Bernie Sanders. 

Sisa, a 21-year-old who attends Chandler-Gilbert Community College, is so passionate about the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful, she was rooting for him to run for president long before he announced his candidacy. 

On a recent Friday evening in downtown Phoenix, Sisa and other volunteers set up a Sanders table at the city's monthly art walk. They propped up a life-size cardboard cutout of the candidate, chanted "Feel the Bern!" and registered fellow Sanders supporters to vote in the primary. 

But even though Sisa is happy to volunteer for Sanders on a Friday night, she herself won't be voting for him. 

She can't. 

Sisa is not a citizen, and there is no path for her to become one. She's a so-called DREAMer — she grew up undocumented in Arizona after her family came here from Argentina. 

"The way that I see it is, I am one person and I can't vote, but if I get 10 people to vote that means a lot more than my vote alone, whenever I can vote," Sisa said.' 

One reason Sisa likes Sanders so much is his immigration platform. It includes proposals to keep immigrant families together and allow certain immigrants who were deported "unjustly" to return. 

Sisa first became interested in politics in June 2012 when President Barack Obama used executive power to create the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gave DREAMers like her protection from deportation and temporary work permits. 

Paving The Way 

Sisa, who was finishing high school at the time, realized other undocumented young people a few years older than her had helped pave the way for that victory. 

For years, young undocumented immigrants lobbied Congress to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or the DREAM Act, a bill that would give them an eventual path to citizenship. The term "DREAMers" was coined as a way to describe the immigrant youth who would have benefited from the bill. DREAMers came out of the shadows, told their stories, traveled to Washington, D.C, and engaged in acts of civil disobedience. 

After Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act, undocumented youth activists called on Obama to act using executive authority. 

"President Obama didn't take action because he felt bad, or because he just woke up one day and said he wanted to pass DACA," Sisa said. "It was because there were brave people who came before me, got arrested, they got to the White House, they pushed." 

Work permits have allowed these young immigrants to get involved in politics in new ways. This election cycle, prominent activists from the DREAMer movement are taking on key roles in Democratic presidential campaigns. 

DREAMer activists Erika Andiola, 28, and Cesar Vargas, 32, head Latino strategic outreach for Bernie Sanders. They are co-founders of the Dream Action Coalition and have been at the forefront of DREAMer issues in their respective home states of Arizona and New York. They joined the campaign this fall and helped craft Sanders' position on immigration. 

Last May, Hillary Clinton tapped Lorella Praeli to head Latino outreach for her campaign. The 27-year-old DREAMer is the former director of advocacy and policy for the immigrant youth rights network, United We Dream. 

"Five years ago, you would never see someone undocumented be hired by such a high profile campaign," Sisa said. "And now to win the campaign, they need them." 

Praeli's family came to the U.S. from Peru when she was a child. At first they came on visits so Praeli could get medical treatments at American hospitals. When Praeli was just 2 years old, she was in a car accident and had her right leg amputated. The family overstayed their visa and became undocumented. 

After fighting for in-state tuition for undocumented students at Connecticut's public colleges and universities, Praeli moved to Washington, D.C., to work for United We Dream, where she was a leading voice pushing the president to use executive authority to defer deportations. 

When Obama announced last year that he would expand upon the 2012 DACA program to also shield the undocumented parents of American citizens from deportation, Praeli was in the audience. But her excitement turned to frustration when Republican governors blocked the program in the court. 

That was the point at which Praeli decided she wanted to use the organizing tactics she had learned as an activist to get Clinton elected as the next president. 

"I thought, there is so much at stake in this election, I want to work for a candidate that is going to fight for my family, that is going to fight for me and for my family," Praeli said. 

Praeli herself just became a citizen. She was able to adjust her status after she married her husband, an American. She'll vote for the first time in the New York primary for her boss. 

Praeli said there is "nothing more beautiful or powerful" than finally being recognized by the country she calls home. 

"It is my deepest desire for every undocumented person in this country to get to experience what I've been going through," Praeli said. 

Martin O'Malley's campaign does not have a DREAMer on staff, according to a spokesman. But the campaign picked Kenia Alejandra Calderon, a DREAMer who is a junior at Drake University in Iowa, to serve as a surrogate and promote the candidate. 

Democrats "Lean In" On Immigration Policies 

The three leading Democratic presidential candidates vary in their immigration platforms but all support a path to citizenship for the undocumented. They have each pledged to expand upon Obama's executive actions for undocumented immigrants if Congress fails to pass immigration legislation. 

In this primary, the Democrats have moved away from "enforcement first" language on immigration, said Ben Johnson of the Washington-based American Immigration Council, an advocacy group that says it's for "sensible and humane" immigration policies. 

"The Democratic party is not having same existential crisis that the Republican party is having when it comes to immigration," Johnson said. "And in fact they have leaned into the issue in some very, very powerful ways." 

Johnson said DREAMers helped shift the immigration debate, and it makes perfect sense that presidential campaigns are hiring them. 

"What the DREAMer movement has done, the way they have organized themselves proves them to be enormously effective political organizers," Johnson said. "They are good at what they do." 

As for Bernie Sanders volunteer Belen Sisa, she just got hired to work for the campaign in Las Vegas. 

"To able to finally have a job with the campaign is like a dream come true for me," Sisa said. 

And whether Sisa's other dreams come true — of ultimately becoming a citizen and one day voting herself — could be determined by who wins the White House in 2016.

Can't Vote But Campaigning Hard For Presidential Candidates

Graham not Lindsey jumping ship

Will Franklin Graham Lead an Evangelical Exodus From the GOP?

Can't blame him.

ENOUGH



Since Republicans took over Congress I can't name one notable accomplishment. In fact you would think the Democrats were in charge! 

In this last spending bill their only retort was...where do we sign. 

Remember the uproar, the videos, regarding PP? It just went up in smoke. I mean Christ...you got to stand for something.

---------------------------------------

Franklin Graham announced this week he was leaving the Republican Party as a result of the inclusion of Planned Parenthood funding in the spending bill that sailed through Congress last week. While he's the first to formally bail, he might not be the last.

Billy Graham's son is over the GOP.

(click)

WOW...Barry's got them trained better than a procession of elephants at Barnum and Bailey's.  

Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, posted on Facebook yesterday that he plans to leave the Republican Party. His growing frustration highlights growing (and sometimes paradoxical) anger that pro-life and evangelical Christian leaders have for Republican Party leadership.

Graham took to Facebook to rip Republicans in the wake of a spending bill the House passed last week that maintains federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

"Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!" Graham wrote, referring to videos that showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing their fetal tissue donation program. "That should've been all that was needed to turn off the faucet for their funding.

"This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself Independent," he continued. "I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America."

On one hand, comments like this aren't particularly out-of-character for Graham. On Nov. 6, he told CNN that he wasn't particularly enamored of the GOP.

"I don't have any faith in any of the political parties," he said. "The only hope that we have is for God to intervene and I want the church to stand up and to vote."

And he made a similar, politically agnostic comment in May, as The Christian Post reported.

That said, yesterday's comment raised eyebrows because it's a commitment to officially break with the Republican Party. And evangelical leaders say he's channeling a sentiment that's increasingly widespread in their community.

After the House voted to pass the omnibus spending bill that kept federal dollars in place for Planned Parenthood, many conservative Christians—evangelical and Catholic—were furious.

Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, said the uproar isn't surprising.

"This Planned Parenthood sponsorship in this bill further confirms what many evangelical Christians believe about the Republican Party establishment, and that is, there's not a dime's worth of difference between the Republican establishment and the Democratic establishment," he said.

"This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself Independent," said Graham.

"And I believe that disenchantment that many evangelical Christians have explains the rise of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump," he added.

Jeffress said this disenchantment has been growing for more than a decade, especially since George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign. During that race, Bush pushed for a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage as part of a strategy to get evangelical Christians to the polls. It worked, and he got re-elected thanks to their strong showing. But in his second term, the president and his team abandoned their promise to try to write a gay-marriage ban into the Constitution. And that left many evangelicals feeling used and betrayed.

Brent Bozell, a prominent conservative activist who founded the Media Research Center, said Graham's split from the Republican Party is especially devastating because of his role as a faith leader, rather than a political one. Graham isn't known for his politicking; rather, evangelicals know and respect him for his disaster relief work—in particular, for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox-donation program that figures prominently in how hundreds of churches celebrate Christmas. 

"He's not taking a political position," said Bozell. "He's taking a moral position, which is far more serious in the evangelical world."

That means Graham's excoriation of party leaders carries special significance.

"When they're funding the murder of children, this is where the evangelicals say, enough is enough," Bozell said.

Ed Martin, the president of Eagle Forum—a conservative activism organization that Phyllis Schlafly started—called the inclusion of Planned Parenthood in the spending bill "an extraordinary betrayal."

"When Franklin Graham and others say, 'Hey, don't put all your hope in a party because that's not the ultimate hope and should not be the focus of this earthly realm,' we recognize that," he said. "So there's a tension that you want to further the values informing your heart and life through politics, through policy. But you also want to say, don't make a political party a false god. Any false god will fail you. There's only one true God."

But there's an irony in this conservative frustration with the Republican Party over abortion: That's because 2015 brought tons of wins for the pro-life movement. Republican state legislatures passed dozens of restrictions on the procedure, and Mother Jones reported that abortion clinics "are closing down at a rate of 1.5 every single week." And the Centers for Disease Control also found that the country's abortion rate reached a record low this year.

Despite that, the loss in Congress has many conservative Christians reeling. And Graham's comments will fuel that anger.

Graham not Lindsey jumping ship

To my loyal readers...

all three of you

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 

To my loyal readers...

BREAKING: Al Sharpton Gets Some BAD News

On a tip from Ed Kilbane

Speaking of Al and the IRS what do you think the odds are the IRS even has a wage garnishment on Al’s Politics Nation paycheck? 

----------------------------------------

 

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed into law a highway bill, H.R. 22, that incidentally wound up barring race-baiter Al Sharpton from stepping foot outside of America.

Specifically, the bill contained within it a tiny little provision that authorized the State Department to revoke the passports of tax-delinquent Americans who owe the IRS more than $50,000.

“If this bill becomes law, it will be imperative for Americans traveling abroad or living abroad to pay attention to IRS notices — assuming they receive them,” David Kautter, a partner at Washington-based accounting firm RSM, explained to The Wall Street Journal a few weeks before the bill’s passage.

Since the bill passed and will officially go into law on Jan. 1, 2016, this means that our good buddy Al Sharpton, who reportedly owes million in taxes to both the federal government and the state of New York, must as of 2016 remain inside the United States at all times (at least until he pays up, which he appears to have no intention of doing).

In fact, while speaking before the National Action Network earlier this year, Sharpton went so far as to try and excuse his bad behavior by citing the most insane of reasons.

“We’re talking about old taxes,” he said. “I think it’s political.”

Right. Because the rest of us can just ignore our back taxes, once a few years have gone by. The IRS probably doesn’t even care after about 18 months.

Regardless, the latest news regarding Sharpton’s future travel plans (or the lack thereof) bodes very badly for him, though one could also argue it bodes badly for all of America, since many of us wish he would fly away somewhere. Anywhere, really.

On the other hand, it’s good news for most of the rest of the world, because the last thing any civilized society needs is Al Sharpton hanging around.

BREAKING: Al Sharpton Gets Some BAD News