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Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Remember this guy?




No the one on the right.



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Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Pakistani IT guy arrested at airport - Washington Times



Well, this doesn’t look odd at all, does it?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s top information technology guy, the Pakistani-born Imran Awan — who was under investigation by the FBI for theft and cybersecurity-tied abuses — was arrested at Dulles International Airport, as he tried to flee the country.

And now Democrats are rushing to defend him, saying he’s the target of massive federal Islamophobia. What a crock.

Wasserman Schultz said through a spokesman Awan was simply a “part-time employee, but his services have been terminated,” Mediaite reported.

Oh, but he’s more, much more, than that.

Awan is the same guy who has made big bucks on the back of taxpayers for years, all while having largely unfettered access to computer-stored data from House Democrats. Can you say security breach? He’s also the same guy who just made a curious transfer of $283,000 to two individuals in Pakistan from his Longworth House Office Building, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation. He’s also the same guy whose wife and children just left America for Pakistan, reportedly carrying more than $12,000 in cash.

And he’s also the same guy who’s been under FBI investigation for some time for allegedly double-billing House members for items like computers, iPads and other technological equipment. He had quite a racket going on; Awan’s two brothers and their wives also served as IT staffers for House Democrats — for the last ten years or so.

It’s a family business. A lucrative one, as well.

Between the time Awan started working for Wasserman Schultz in 2005 and his family members were let go, earlier this year, they had collectively earned more than $4 million in tax paid salaries. In February, House members were alerted to potential for abuse and let go Awan’s family members.

Until just recently, Wasserman Schultz refused to fire Awan, however, and even went so far in her defense of him that she recently refused Capitol Police’s request to search a laptop belonging to him.

And just this week?

Just this week, the FBI seized smashed hard drives from Awan’s home.

Nothing suspicious there, right?

Agents with the U.S. Capitol Police, Border Protection and the FBI stopped him Tuesday at the airport, where he was headed to Pakistan by way of Qatar.

Part of the investigation involves what information the family had access to, and what they did with it. Awan, for instance, has been charged with fraudulently taking out mortgages as part of one of several alleged financial schemes — conducted at a time when he had access to emails and files of dozens of members of Congress and to information tied to Wasserman Schultz’s former Democratic National Committee organization. Feds also think the family may have put sensitive House information on the “cloud,” leaving it open for others to view.

And what do the Democrats have to say about all this?

Unbelievably enough, they’re siding with Awan.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, for instance, suggested police have simply framed Awan because he was born in Pakistan.

“Awan and his family are of Pakistani descent and according to Democrat sources, their ethnicity is ‘a factor in the attention they’re receiving,’” Mediaite reported.

Democrats truly couldn’t be any more blinded by partisanship. They’re obviously so willing to do the catering of their leftist base — to fight hard for their open border activists, their Muslim apologists in the lobby world, their progressive bulldogs — they’d put the security of the nation second to the get-away car of a federally suspected fraudster. Makes you wonder what Democrats are really trying to protect — what Democrats are really trying to hide.







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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Trump has no plans for White House pet



Trump's White House could be the first since James Polk's – 168 years ago – to have no presidential pets. 

My take is...



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WASHINGTON — Politically ambitious pups and kittens: Put your resumes aside.

The job of first pet — an enviable White House gig with luxurious live-in privileges, after-hours access to the president and guaranteed positive press coverage — is not currently available.

That's because President Donald Trump is not looking for a fluffy sidekick at the moment. Asked about plans for a four-legged addition to the White House, Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Melania Trump, said in a statement: "The first family is still getting settled so there are no plans at this time."

If Trump stays pet-free, he will be breaking with a long held tradition of presidential pet ownership.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's had his beloved terrier Fala. President George H.W. Bush's English springer spaniel Millie was featured on "The Simpsons." When President Barack Obama's family acquired their Portuguese water dog Bo, it was big news.

"In the modern-day presidency, almost all of them have had a pet," said Jennifer Pickens, a White House social expert who wrote "Pets at the White House." Still, she noted, "all didn't necessarily have them at the beginning of the administration."

Power and pets have long gone hand in hand.

"For some reason people in power, they end up suffocating different opinions and dominating their staff, but they in some ways long for someone who will speak up to them, and a pet will," said Doug Wead, a former George H.W. Bush administration staffer who wrote books on presidential children and the 2016 campaign.

Wead noted that political pets can sometimes be used for, well, politics. He recalled an event after Millie had puppies that was "carefully choreographed so guests could see all these little puppies."

"It was calculated like a state dinner," he said.

While there have been notable pets in the White House for generations, Millie was the first modern White House dog, said Pickens. She added that Barbara Bush was the first one to "use the pet as a tool to reach out."

The former first lady wrote "Millie's Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush," which reached the number one spot on the New York Times nonfiction best seller list in the fall of 1990. The newspaper's description: "The memoirs of the English springer spaniel who lives in the White House."

Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1998 followed Bush's lead, with a children's book about family dog Buddy and cat Socks. "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets" featured photographs of the pets, details on their habits and more than 50 letters from children to the pets.

During President George W. Bush's administration, when the White House was closed for tours after 9/11, the administration tried to connect with the public through videos. Among them was the "Barney Cam" series of short videos featuring the Scottish terrier having adventures in the West Wing, with cameos from the first family and White House staff.

When he declared victory in the 2008 presidential race, Barack Obama told his daughters: "You have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House." Several months later, Bo joined the family, a gift from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Bo quickly became a household name, appearing on morning television shows and in videos promoting the White House Easter egg roll.

Some notable pets belonged to first kids, including Amy Carter's Siamese cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang and Caroline Kennedy's pony Macaroni. The Kennedy family had a veritable menagerie of pets, complete with dogs, cats, birds, hamsters and a rabbit named Zsa Zsa.

Going back in White House history, some presidential pet stories get more outlandish. According to the Presidential Pet Museum website, President Martin Van Buren was given a pair of tiger cubs that he donated to a zoo and President John Quincy Adams was presented an alligator.

While Trump has not embraced presidential pet ownership, Vice President Mike Pence has picked up the slack. The Pences have a bunny, Marlon Bundo, and a cat named Pickles. Another cat named Oreo recently died. And they just added two more pets to the household — puppy Harley and cat Hazel. They also installed a beehive.

Pickens said she doesn't know that it matters if Trump gets a dog, but she said they are "effective tools to connect with the American people and I think pets help humanize the presidency."

Of course, while pet ownership can provide personal and political perks, it can also go wrong. Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was dogged by criticism for admitting that during a 1983 family vacation, he strapped his Irish setter — in a pet carrier — to the roof of his car for a 12-hour drive from Boston to Canada.






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Saturday, July 22, 2017

Ford puts in good word for OJ at the parole board















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Texas 'bathroom bill' advances out of Senate committee




Hard to believe we're even having this conversation.


Opponents of a Texas "bathroom bill" protest in the exterior rotunda at the Texas state Capitol in Austin, March 7, 2017. (Associated Press)

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In an 8-1 vote, a Texas state Senate committee agreed Friday to advance a measure to restrict public restroom use by transgender people, despite 10 hours of testimony from opponents of the bill, the Texas Tribune reported.

Senate Bill 3, a so-called “bathroom bill,” would regulate public school facilities, open-enrollment charter school facilities, and local government restrooms to be “used only by persons of the same sex as stated on a person's birth certificate.” It will now advance to the full Senate for consideration.

The measure is expected to pass and be sent to the House. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, is said to back the measure, which is sponsored by GOP state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst.

Republicans say the measure would help protect restroom users against sexual predators, but Democrats argue that it discriminates against transgender people.

Debate surrounding the bill has already cost the state $66 million in convention business, and that figure could rise to roughly $1.4 billion if more sports, conventions and other events are canceled.

A similar bill in North Carolina cost that state hundreds of millions of dollars and led to the relocation of this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend from Charlotte to New Orleans.

In March, North Carolina repealed its bathroom law, and in May the NBA agreed to hold its event in Charlotte in 2019.

Prior to Friday’s vote, leaders of the National Episcopal Church voiced their concerns, encouraging Texas House Speaker Joe Straus in a letter to continue his stance against any proposed bathroom bill.

Kolkhorst took a jab at an Obama-era federal policy that provided protections for transgender students in public schools. That policy has since been removed by the Trump administration.

“We’re here today because Texas has a tradition of taking care of these issues and not being dictated to by the federal government,” Kolkhorst said.

This is the Lone Star State’s second attempt to pass a bathroom bill. Straus had helped block the previous effort, the Tribune reported.






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Thursday, July 20, 2017

Rosie O'Donnell promotes 'Push Trump Off A Cliff Again' online game








"Push Trump Off A Cliff Again," O'Donnell tweeted along with a link to the game. The game's name is a riff off of Trump's campaign slogan "Make American Great Again."

Players of the controversial game can either push Trump off a cliff, into a volcano, into a manhole or have him eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Many fans took to Twitter to express their outrage of the 55-year-old's tweet.


Interesting - you got bent out of shape with the CNN memes but this is okay? Hypocrisy thy name is Rosie.— Pete Athens (@athynz1) July 17, 2017


One can dislike the President whoever he/she is, without suggesting any type of violence. Lead by example.— BethGrantDeRoos (@BethGrantDeRoos) July 19, 2017


The amount of time wasted by playing this game by the many people is astounding. What have we fallen to? Like him or not he's our potus.— Bryant (@buckraven89) July 19, 2017


Violence against the President? Not so good.— Sherry Swain (@SherrySwain) July 15, 2017


you are a sick individual, get some help!!🇱🇷— Karin Brown (@KarinBr87505385) July 18, 2017


I loathe Trump, but this is not cool.— Jack Hodgson (@jackhodgson) July 15, 2017

This is the latest chapter in the long-standing feud between O'Donnell and Trump.

O'Donnell has called Trump "mentally unstable" and has come under fire for asking in 2016, "Barron Trump Autistic?"

Trump has aimed his fair share of offending remarks towards the comedian. He has poked fun at her weight and called her a "loser."

O'Donnel's tweet comes just under two months after fellow comedian Kathy Griffin got into trouble for posing with a bloodied Trump mask.

Griffin later apologized for the photo shoot saying, "I understand how it offends people" adding "I've made a lot of mistakes in my career."

And one of them was not moving to Canada and taking the fat blowhard with you.





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