After days and weeks and months of unnecessary delays, Republicans and Democrats have finally agreed that it’s time to have confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch to be the next Attorney General.
“I’m glad we can say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to complete action on this important legislation so we can provide help to the victims who desperately need it,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He said he anticipated a vote on Lynch, who will become the nation’s first black female attorney general, “in the next day or so.”
“Let’s get out of this quickly,” said Democratic Leader Harry Reid. “Let’s get Loretta Lynch confirmed.”
Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, were holding up Lynch’s confirmation because an abortion language in the human trafficking bill. Both sides finally agreed on new language in the bill after President Obama called the Senate’s inaction on Loretta Lynch “embarrassing.”
Lynch, who was nominated by the president last fall, would be the first black female attorney general if she is confirmed.
How low will he go? I don’t know, but according to these new poll results in New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie just hit an all time low in the state he governs.
New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Christie is doing by 56 percent to 38 percent, his lowest-ever approval rating, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
Voters gave him the lowest marks for his handling of the state budget, education, the economy and jobs. The results come just days after the state of New Jersey’s credit rating was downgraded for a ninth time since Christie took office in January 2010.
Moody’s Investors Service cut New Jersey to A2 with a negative outlook late on Thursday, citing “the lack of improvement in the state’s weak financial position and large structural imbalance,” stemming mostly from huge shortfalls in its public pension contributions.
New Jersey is the second-lowest-rated U.S. state, behind only Illinois.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart explained the different factors that led to his decision to leave the hit show.
Among the need to spend more time with his family, Stewart said that doing the show based on today’s politics became an increasingly redundant, leaving him wondering if there were other ways to “skin this cat.”
“It’s not like I thought the show wasn’t working any more,” Stewart said, “or that I didn’t know how to do it. It was more, ‘Yup, it’s working. But I’m not getting the same satisfaction.’”
“These things are cyclical. You have moments of dissatisfaction, and then you come out of it and it’s OK. But the cycles become longer and maybe more entrenched, and that’s when you realize, ‘OK, I’m on the back side of it now.’”
He continued.
“Honestly, it was a combination of the limitations of my brain and a format that is geared towards following an increasingly redundant process, which is our political process. I was just thinking, ‘Are there other ways to skin this cat?’
And, beyond that, it would be nice to be home when my little elves get home from school, occasionally.”
There is an undying fascination with the right wing over a possible Hillary Clinton presidency in 2016 and death. Recently, I highlighted a story about someone attacking the tombstone of Hillary Clinton’s deceased father and now this – using the arbitrary of a dead man to ask voters not to vote for Mrs Clinton.
A North Carolina man’s obituary asked two things of friends and family: instead of sending flowers for the funeral, give the money to charity — and don’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The family of 81-year-old Larry Upright added the political message to the obituary announcing the Kannapolis man’s death and burial last week, according to WSOC-TV.
Upright’s daughter, Jill McLain, said the rock-ribbed Republican was passionate about politics. She said that recollection prompted his family to ask obituary readers to reject Clinton’s presidential bid.
This week marks the return of the standardized tests that no one likes, and are based on the Common Core standards that are unpopular across the political spectrum. And since the federal government has given schools until early May to give the tests, schools across the country will be testing for the next four weeks. Never mind that there are precious few weeks of instruction left in the academic year, especially in the South, or that Advanced Placement tests are administered during the first two weeks of May. PARCC tests must be given and school districts must stop everything in order to meet the testing mandate.
The effects on schools have been profound. Students have missed, and will miss more academic classes, extra-help sessions, Advanced Placement test reviews, band practices and basic skills instruction. In most schools, the tests are taken in the library, which makes that resource unavailable for part or all of the school day. In other schools, the entire academic day stops for the tests and some districts have prohibited homework for the duration of the administration. This is not efficient education.
Meanwhile, in New Hampshire where the GOP had its first substantive discussions about presidential policy, Ted Cruz is promising to obliterate the Common Core, Chris Christie is blaming his predecessor for the standards, Bobby Jindal is running away from the standards despite promoting them two years ago, and Jeb Bush, who supports the Common Core, is not mentioning that fact because the GOP base hates them. Hillary hasn’t said much, but she can bide her time and let the Republicans fight amongst themselves.
My sense is that the Common Core standards will survive because most educational publishers and programs, such as the AP, have modified their curricula to mirror the standards. In and of themselves, the standards are beneficial and having national benchmarks will allow us to compare our students across the United States and with students from other countries. State standards might reflect local priorities, but we live in a global world and economy. Students need to be proficient in specific content and academic skills and, quite honestly, not all states are proficient at delivering them.
In addition, not all states and localities can afford to implement programs that students need. Federal involvement in education is a point of contention in many areas, but without equality of resources we can’t have equality of outcomes. And that’s what we desperately need.
Yes, Fox News is the direct right arm of the Republican party, so when Barack Obama or Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton is mentioned on the network, negative connotations usually follow.
Enter Fox News host Megyn Kelly, and her recent episode bashing Hillary Clinton for announcing her intentions to run for President but, according to Kelly, avoiding reporters. Kelly’s guest, a regular Fox News contributor named Leslie Marshall, was invited to discuss Kelly’s concerns and she totally shutdown those concern as premature.
“So far, brilliantly done” Megyn says, referring to Clinton’s presidential announcement and her listening tour. “I mean, if she didn’t want to speak to the press, she managed to avoid them, she made them look like idiots and she’s pursuing this method that Valerie Jarrett said got Barack Obama elected.”
Marshall calmly explained to Megyn that it is still early in the process. That Clinton announced her candidacy just days ago and that the 2016 election is still a good ways off. Marshall practically guaranteed Kelly that as time went on, Clinton will be interviewed. But this was not accepted by Kelly and she continued pushing the talking point that Clinton was avoiding the press.
In the end, Marshall clearly won this debate as common sense prevailed. To quote Marshall, “She will have scheduled interviews, she has to, she can’t avoid it.”
And now the President of the United States is calling out the Republicans over their continued blockage of the Loretta Lynch confirmation. The President correctly stated that Loretta Lynch is “a woman who everybody believes is qualified” to be the next Attorney General of the United States, but she is blocked for no reason by Republicans.
Explaining that Mrs Lynch has waited for confirmation “longer than the previous seven attorney general nominees combined,” a visually exasperated president called the blockage “political gamesmanship in the Senate.” Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is holding up the Lynch confirmation because he wants Democrats to vote on abortion language in a Human Trafficking Bill.
Republicans love abortions apparently!
Again, one thing has nothing to do with the other, but… political gamesmanship!
The New York Police Department has come up with a new rule to govern prisoners who object to having their pictures taken by a member of the opposite sex, or who refuse to remove their head covers.
The policy change, which applies to men and women of all faiths, was sparked by a concern by Muslim women who say it’s against their religion to remove their hijab in front of men.
“This was just a really difficult process for them to go through,” said Susan Herman, deputy commissioner for collaborative policing, “and they wondered whether there was anything that could be done to change it and to accommodate their concerns.
“We came up with a policy that can be more broadly applied to anyone who has a religious head covering who desires to have their photograph taken by a member of the same gender.”
Under the new rule, those who will only remove their head covering in private or insist on the photo being taken by a member of the same sex will be taken to 1 Police Plaza, where there are more female photographers, and space for pictures to be taken in private.
The NYPD requires a mug shot be taken both with and without any head covering worn by the suspect. The picture must provide an unobstructed view of the head, ears and face.
There is a video of the actual police shooting of 17-year old Laquan McDonald in Chicago last October, but the video is not being released at this point because of an active investigation. According to the police report, the officer who pulled the trigger “was scared for his life” and shot the teenager in his chest.
But a coroner’s report showed that Laquan was not just shot in the chest, he was also shot in the leg, in his arm, in his head, in his back. A total of 16 bullets riddled the teenager’s body, a shooting that took 16 seconds to complete.
Yes, the shooting officer made it back home to his family in one piece and Chicago is cutting a $5 million check for Laquan’s family.
Ted Cruz is the same Republican who organized the last shutdown of the American government, a move that cost this country $24 billion according to Standard & Poor’s. Standard and Poor’s also said the shutdown equaled $1.5 billion a day for the 16 days shutdown the doors to some government agencies stayed shut. If the shutdown had continued, as Ted Cruz clearly wanted it to, America would be no more.
Cruz’s daddy – who had no criticism about his son’s government shutdown – is now all of a sudden saying “you might as well kiss this country goodbye” if Hillary Clinton is elected in 2016. Again, this man had nothing do say when his son cost this country $24 billion!
Speaking to a Teaparty group in Georgia, Rafael Cruz said,“If we did it then, you bet we can do it again. And let me tell you, if we have someone like Hillary Clinton elected in 2016, you might as well kiss this country goodbye, this country’s gone. We are fighting for the survival of America.”
Again, this man had nothing to say about the destruction of America when his son shut down the government and cost the nation $24 billion in 16 days!
Eric Holder, the current Attorney General, has already said he wants to leave the post, and over 160 days ago, the president nominated his successor. But Republicans, branded “the party of NO,” apparently see political benefits in refusing to confirm the new Attorney General, so Sharpton along with female civil-rights leaders are trying to put pressure on Senate leader Mitch McConnell with a hunger strike.
“As long as the Senate refuses to take fifteen minutes to confirm someone for Attorney General that they have already confirmed twice for U.S. Attorney,” National Action Network and its allies “will do everything in our power to draw attention to this completely unfair and unnecessary delay to vote to confirm Loretta Lynch,” Sharpton, who founded NAN, said in a statement Wednesday.
The group’s executive director, Janaye Ingram, added: “We stand with Loretta Lynch and are so in support of this cause that we are willing to sacrifice our daily meals to impress upon the U.S. Senate that it’s time to call a vote.”
The hunger strike is part of a broader public pressure campaign for Republican leaders to quickly hold a confirmation vote for Lynch, who has been stuck in a nomination purgatory ever since she cleared the Judiciary Committee in late February. Lynch, the current U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, would be the first black woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
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