He wants to lead the country, when he cannot even lead New Jersey.
New Jersey voters give Gov. Christie one of his lowest job approval ratings ever, as 46 percent approve and 45 percent disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released today.
This compares to a 49 – 47 percent job approval in an August 7 Quinnipiac University poll. Today’s approval rating is his lowest since a 44 – 47 percent job approval in a June 21, 2011, survey.
Just when you think it couldn’t get more ridiculous, more unbelievable, more unacceptable than an man being allowed to jog across the White House lawn and enter the White House with a knife in his pocket, you hear this news – that three days before the White House intruder made his unwanted visit to the White House, the Secret Service once again dropped the ball and allowed a man with a gun to ride an elevator with President Obama.
But wait, it wasn’t just any man with a gun, it was a felon with a gun!!!
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Someone at the Secret Service needs to be fired preferably the head of the Secret Service, Ms. Pierson!
An armed private security agent was allowed on an elevator with President Barack Obama earlier this month in Atlanta, a Secret Service official said on Tuesday, in another case involving a security failure for the embattled agency.
The incident occurred while Obama was visiting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sept. 16, three days before a man with a knife jumped the White House fence in Washington and ran into the executive mansion.
The White House intrusion has sparked sharp criticism of the agency responsible for protecting the president. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson told a congressional committee on Tuesday: “This is unacceptable and I take full responsibility.”
In the Atlanta incident, first reported by the Washington Examiner and Washington Post, a security contractor with the CDC was operating the elevator carrying Obama and his Secret Service detail.
The man began taking pictures and video of Obama on his phone, prompting the Secret Service to take him aside for questioning after they left the elevator, the agency official said.
It was not until his supervisor appeared and asked for his gun that the Secret Service realize he was armed, the official said. Under agency rules, people with access to the president need special clearance to carry guns.
The Washington Post reported that a background check also showed the man had three previous convictions for assault and battery.
Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Ted Cruz was born in Canada. And for those who need to hear things 3 times to understand… Ted Cruz was born in Canada.
But I digress.
According to sources close to the Texas senator, Cruz could be preparing for an end-of-year announcement and is now dedicating considerable time and effort to cultivating a foreign-policy foundation that might help his candidacy stand out in what is guaranteed to be a crowded field.
“At this point it’s 90/10 he’s in,” one Cruz adviser said. “And honestly, 90 is lowballing it.”
The senator’s choreography since arriving in Washington has long pointed to a presidential run. His office meticulously documents the details of his meetings and events to guard against opposition research. He has aggressively pursued visits to important primary states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Late last month Cruz hired three prominent consultants with experience in national campaigns and extensive contacts in early nominating states. And he recently moved his chief of staff, Chip Roy, from his congressional office to the campaign operation, sending the clearest signal yet to allies inside and outside the Capitol that a bid for the White House is imminent.
The Republican Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, has been in Congress since the beginning of time, and was present at George Washington’s inauguration in 1789.
One would think McConnell would have all his ducks in a row and be able to point to all the advantages Kentuckians would benefit from by keeping him in Congress. One would think McConnell would be happy to debate anyone who dares question his experience and qualification for being in Congress. But one would be wrong. According to reports, McConnell is doing all he can to avoid any debate with his opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes.
After all his time in Washington, people are still trying to figure out McConnell, and they want to know where he stand on the issues, so of course, they try having the two candidates together to express their views. For the most part, Alison Lundergan Grimes has made herself available, but Mitch it seems, has better things to do.
In a recent KSR radio interview, Alison Lundergan Grimes was onsite with no McConnell to debate. The radio station said that they extended an invitation to both candidates for Kentucky’s Senate seat. McConnell initially said he would attend, but then changed his mind. KRS said, “We have an invitation out to McConnell to come on the show as well, and if he doesn’t accept, Grimes will win the KSR vote.”
Today, Kentucky Sports Radio said that McConnell had agreed to come on the show then stopped returning their calls and emails, “Don’t tell me you’re going to come, and then not come. Why do people have to lie? … They don’t return my calls and emails.”
This is normal behavior for Sen. McConnell. In June, McConnell refused to respond to a debate invitation from The Beattyville Enterprise, “The Enterprise has twice sent email requests for McConnell to appear in Beattyville for a debate, but no response has yet been received.”
Twelve days ago, Sen. McConnell accepted a debate invitation from The Appalachian News-Express but quickly backed out because he was going to be on a bus tour of Kentucky during ALL of the potential dates.
The evidence is clear. Mitch McConnell is afraid to debate Alison Lundergan Grimes. He has turned down debate invitations from media and organizations across the state of Kentucky. It looks like Kentucky voters will only get one chance to see the two candidates debate. The only debate in the Kentucky Senate race is scheduled for October 13.
Alison on KRS Radio
When I first heard and saw the video of this, showing a man casually making his way into the White House, I knew something was ghastly wrong. No one, no matter who they are, should be allowed to run across the White House lawn, jog up the stairs to the North doors and not only entered the building, but run all the way to the East Room. This should not happen and like I said when the initial report came out, Secret Service heads should roll because of this!
The Washington Post is reporting that the man who jumped the White House fence this month and sprinted through the front door made it much farther into the building than previously known, overpowering one Secret Service officer and running through much of the main floor, according to three people familiar with the incident.
An alarm box near the front entrance of the White House designed to alert guards to an intruder had been muted at what officers believed was a request of the usher’s office, said a Secret Service official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The officer posted inside the front door appeared to be delayed in learning that the intruder, Omar Gonzalez, was about to burst through. Officers are trained that, upon learning of an intruder on the grounds — often through the alarm boxes posted around the property — they must immediately lock the front door.
After barreling past the guard immediately inside the door, Gonzalez, who was carrying a knife, dashed past the stairway leading a half-flight up to the first family’s living quarters. He then ran into the 80-foot-long East Room, an ornate space often used for receptions or presidential addresses.
Gonzalez was tackled by a counterassault agent at the far southern end of the East Room. The intruder reached the doorway to the Green Room, a parlor overlooking the South Lawn with artwork and antique furniture, according to three people familiar with the incident.
I have gone on record as saying that the Democrats will somehow come out of the midterm elections still controlling the Senate, if only because Vice president Joe Biden will be the deciding vote in a 50-50 chamber.
That was last week. And a new spate of polls has the left in a bit of a tizzy, since they seem to show the GOP potentially picking up 7 seats, which would give them clear control. Let’s take a look.
RealClearPolitics shows nine tossup races on their election map, but new polls last week also show Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado and Georgia moving to the right. One notable poll, from Qinnipiac, is clearly and outlier, but especially in Colorado, the trend is towards the Republican. Electoral-vote also shows the same trends, although a mouse-over some of the more contested states shows razor-thin majorities in Colorado, Arkansas and Iowa. And over at the Princeton Election Consortium, the Meta-margin is currently at R+0.9 using a polls-only model.
So what does this mean?
That the races are still too close to call and that we need many more polls to make some sense of where we stand. No candidate in any of the contentious states has 50% in any poll or poll average, making it difficult to gauge anything other than movement towards one candidate or the other. In the end, the Senate race will be one of bragging rights since President Obama will veto anything he doesn’t like. The big repercussions will have to do with judicial and other nominees, where the Senate will most likely advise, but not consent. And in 2016 the GOP will be at the disadvantage, having to defend 23 seats.
The best news for the left, though, is the news that the GOP is still moving farther to the right, as evidenced by this past weeks Values Voter Summit. As long as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Perry are the faces of the Republicans, they will continue to lose national races.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Republicans want nothing to do with the war against the terrorist group ISIS, and they are doing everything possible to avoid the issue all together, even suggesting that the next Congress handle the vote.
Republicans in Congress are standing on the sidelines, but observing from the sidelines does not stop them from pointing and dictating how things should go.
House Speaker John Boehner says the U.S. may have “no choice” but to send ground forces into Syria to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s gonna take more than airstrikes to drive them outta there,” the Ohio Republican said in an interview airing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” according to a transcript. “At some point somebody’s boots have to be on the ground.”
Asked if the U.S. should supply those ground forces if no other country would, Boehner said: “We have no choice. These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. And if we don’t destroy them first, we’re gonna pay the price.”
President Obama used this week’s weekly address to continue his message that America is leading. Leading the world on confronting terrorists like ISIL, leading in confronting the Ebola epidemic and leading the world to combat Climate Change.
“American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. That was true this week, as we mobilized the world to confront some of our most urgent challenges,” the President Said.
It was just a little over 24 hours ago when the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced that he will resign from office by the end of this year. But already, with no other potential nominees mentioned by the President, Republicans are already gearing up to filibuster the new appointee.
With Nov. 4 midterm elections potentially tipping the balance in the Senate, some Republicans immediately called for a delay in the hearings and votes on the new attorney general until January, when the possibility of a GOP majority in the Senate might give Republicans almost total control of the outcome.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) issued a political call to arms for conservatives, saying that outgoing senators should not vote on the nominee during the post-election lame-duck session. “Allowing Democratic senators, many of whom will likely have just been defeated at the polls, to confirm Holder’s successor would be an abuse of power that should not be countenanced,” Cruz said in a statement.
Democrats argued that Republicans should step back and allow Obama to select his own cabinet without GOP obstruction.
“This is going to be the first real test, whether it’s in the lame-duck or early in the new year, whether our Republican colleagues are going to continue to obstruct,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday in an interview. “Every president deserves to have his attorney general.”
Witnesses say the woman, identified as 44 year old Sandra Amezquita, was trying to protect her 17 year old son from getting arrested.
According to police, they were trying to arrest the teenager because he had a knife and that is when his mother intervened. The video shows an officer grabbing the woman from behind and slamming her to the ground. She landed on her stomach with the officer on top of her.
She is six months pregnant and according to her doctors, she is now having complications.
Update: Lawyers representing Sandra said police also beat the pregnant woman on her stomach with batons, and they released photos showing her bruises.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has been on the campaign trail recently, trying to get as many Democrats elected in Congress as she possibly can. And with the midterm elections just around the corner, Warren is calling on other women voters to go to the polls and make a difference.
“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu,” Warren told the largely female audience at an event on Monday for Emily’s List, a group supporting pro-choice candidates nationally. “Washington works for those who have power. And no one gives up power easily, no one…Nobody’s just going to say ‘women have arrived and let’s just move over’…We have a chance but we have to fight for it.”
Warren went onto urge donors to specifically vote for candidates in tough reelection campaigns, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C). Their opponents are former senator Scott Brown and GOP candidate Thom Tillis, respectively.
(AP) — Eric Holder, who served as the public face of the Obama administration’s legal fight against terrorism and weighed in on issues of racial fairness, is resigning after six years on the job. He is the nation’s first black attorney general.
The White House said that President Barack Obama would announce Holder’s departure later Thursday and that Holder planned to remain at the Justice Department until his successor was in place. White House officials said Obama had not made a final decision on a replacement for Holder, who was one of the most progressive voices in his Cabinet.
Advisers to Obama and Holder said the attorney general had been planning his departure with the president for some time. Some possible candidates who have been discussed among administration officials include Solicitor General Don Verrilli, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a former Rhode Island attorney general.
Holder, a 63-year-old former judge and prosecutor, took office in early 2009 as the U.S. government grappled with the worst financial crisis in decades and with divisive questions on the handling of captured terrorism suspects, issues that helped shape his tenure as the country’s top law enforcement official. He is the fourth-longest serving attorney general in U.S. history.
