Saturday AM ~ The Front Page Cover

[Rudy Tirre]

The Front Page Cover

 2016             The turth is the gold of today 

Featuring:

The Republican Race Heats Up 

While Hilly Clinton Falters

 Michael Barone

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 Of Course the Establishment Backs Trump 

In the days leading up to the Feb. 1 Iowa Caucus, the Republican presidential field has undergone some significant shifts. After last Thursday's debate, the consensus seemed to favor a three-man race — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. But some would go even further to say it's really down to Trump and Cruz. Establishment versus Outsider. But who is who?

          As for the rest of the field, Rubio's path to the nomination seems to be getting more, not less, difficult. His battles with Cruz and Chris Christie have exposed the problems his record poses for both conservatives and the rest of the base, particularly on immigration. And without a win in the early states, as seems likely, many wonder if Rubio can stay strong long enough to turn the tide.

          And what of establishment darling Jeb Bush? Well, Jeb! has spent much of this contest polling in the single digits, and despite (or rather because of) his attacks on Trump and his numerous and uninspiring policy speeches, he just isn't gaining traction with an electorate looking to throw the bums out. An almost sure loss in New Hampshire could mark the end for Bush.

          As for Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Rand Paul and the rest? We can expect to see them all to be picked off in the early primaries as their predictably meager showings lead to a bleeding of cash and supporters and the inevitable campaign suspension announcements.

 -The Patriot Post

http://patriotpost.us/digests/40152

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 Half a Million Foreigners Overstay Their Visas 

The Department of Homeland Security this week published its Entry/Exit Overstay Report For Fiscal Year 2015. The Visa Waiver Program study "provides data on departures and overstays, by country, for foreign visitors to the United States who were lawfully admitted into the United States for specific, temporary purposes, but overstayed their lawful admission period." From the report: "In FY 2015, of the nearly 45 million nonimmigrant visitor admissions through air or sea ports of entry that were expected to depart in FY 2015, DHS determined that 527,127 individuals overstayed their admission, for a total overstay rate of 1.17 percent." And "more than 90 percent of those who remained in the country illegally, a total of 482,781, were believed to still be present through the end of last year," the Washington Examiner reports.

          Even a fraction of that number would be concerning. Adds the Examiner, "[A] number of countries with ties to terrorism had significant numbers of nationals still in the U.S. accounted for by the federal government: 1,435 from Pakistan, 681 from Iraq, 564 from Iran, 440 from Syria, 219 from Yemen, 219 from Afghanistan, and 56 from Libya." This particular study doesn't take other significant visa programs into account, so the actual number of nonimmigrants who are still in the U.S. despite having expired visas is higher. Among the ways terrorists can slip through under the radar, none are more obvious than our broken visa system. After all, those overstaying visas account for somewhere between 40% and 50% of illegals in this country.  -The Patriot Post

http://patriotpost.us/digests/40179

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 NOAA Confirms 2015 Was World's Warmest, But...  A few days before a blizzard threatens to shut down Washington, DC, probably isn't the best time to make a major global warming announcement. Nevertheless, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today said that the 2015 global temperature finished 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit above average, which easily beat out 2014. According to the report, "This was the highest among all 136 years in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record set [in 2014] by 0.29°F (0.16°C) and marking the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century. This is also the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken." An independent analysis by NASA foundsimilar results.

          However, satellite measurements were less daunting. NOAA says, "The 2015 temperature for the lower troposphere (roughly the lowest five miles of the atmosphere) was third highest in the 1979-2015 record, at 0.65°F (0.36°C) above the 1981–2010 average, as analyzed by the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH). It was also third highest on record, at 0.47°F (0.26°C) above the 1981–2010 average, as analyzed by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS)." And that's exactly what climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer predicted last month. In fact, he went a step further: "What is interesting is to consider the possibility that 2016 will indeed be a record warm year, even in the UAH (and probably RSS) satellite data. This is because the second year of El Niño year couplets is almost always the warmest, and 2015 is only the first year." Translation: Expect 2016 to be record warm, even among satellite measurements. And when it is, remember that it was forecasted using natural variables. Speaking of which, the current El Niño is expected to flip to La Niña later this year. How will NOAA respond when global temperatures then dropbeginning in 2017?  -The Patriot Post

http://patriotpost.us/digests/40179

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Hilly Supporter Lena Dunham 

Bashes Clintons in Private

Tiffany Gabbay

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{truthrevolt.org} ~ She is stumping for Democrat presidential candidate Hilly Clinton and claims to be one of the frontrunner's biggest supporters, but it's now revealed that during a private event actress Lena Dunham blasted Bill and Hilly Clinton over their treatment of women... in particular those who accused the former president of sexual misconduct. Dunham, star of the HBO series, Girls, was disturbed by how the Clintons discredited women who accused Bill Clinton of rape, yet still defends Hilly. The actress maintains that Hilly is the target of hatred because she is a "successful woman." A successful woman by lying and cheating.         http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/hillary-supporter-lena-dunham-bashes-clintons-private

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Palestinians: Western Media's 

Ignorance and Bias

Khaled Abu Toameh

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{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Two Western journalists recently asked to be accompanied to the Gaza Strip to interview Jewish settlers living there... No, this is not the opening line of a joke. These journalists were in Israel at the end of 2015, and they were deadly serious. Imagine their embarrassment when it was pointed out to them that Israel had completely pulled out of the Gaza Strip ten years ago. These "parachute journalists," as they are occasionally called, are catapulted into the region without being briefed on the basic facts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sadly, correspondents such as these are more the rule than the exception. A particular clueless British reporter springs to mind.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7271/palestinians-western-media

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Hilly Campaign: 

nObama-Appointed Inspector 

General Part of Right-Wing Conspiracy

Jeff Dunetz

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{lidblog.com} ~ Smell that? That’s the sweet smell of a desperate campaign... Yesterday, Fox News reported that the Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III told both the Senate Intelligence and Senate Foreign Relations committees that intelligence agencies found messages on Hilly Clinton’s server relating to what are known as “special access programs,” or SAP. That’s an even higher level of secrecy than top secret. Today Hilly’s Spokesman Brian Fallon, was interviewed by Alisyn Camerota on CNN and claimed that the nObama-appointed Intelligence Community Inspector General’s report is the result of political coordination with the Republicans.  In other words the nObama-appointed IG was part of what the “vast right wing conspiracy” which was invented by Ms. Clinton in 1998: That is so much bull now, as it was in 1998. Can you smell it?        http://lidblog.com/hillary-clinton-campaign-obama-appointed-inspector-general-part-of-right-wing-conspiracy/?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_campaign=007e6c7b2e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_597b72c01c-007e6c7b2e-291705165

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Hilly's Aide Huma Abedin 

Strongly Linked to Radical Islam, 

Saudi Arabian Government

Matalie Myers

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{punchingbagpost.com} ~ Throughout Hilly Clinton’s political career, one thing has remained consistent: Huma Abedin has been by her side... Abedin has held a number of roles within the Clinton team including the ambiguous “body woman”, traveling chief of staff, senior adviser, and deputy chief of staff. Despite this very public career path, not much is known about Abedin outside of her relationship with disgraced New York congressman, Anthony Wiener. However, a recent Vanity Fair article shed light on the past of Clinton’s right hand woman. Abedin moved to Saudi Arabia with her family at a young age where her father, along with Abdullah Omar Nasseef, the then president of King Abdulaziz University, founded the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Her father then became the first editor of its Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, where Huma worked between 1996 and 2008.       http://punchingbagpost.com/hillary-aide-huma-abedin-strongly-linked-to-radical-islam-saudi-arabian-government

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Former Intelligence Chairman

Warns 'Stealth Jihad' Is Moving 

Through The West

Ginni Thomas

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{investigativeproject.org} ~ Former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra is genuinely worried about the fundamental changes President Barack nObama has made to American foreign policy... according to this 28-minute exclusive video interview for The Daily Caller News Foundation. A Michigan congressman for 18 years, the native-born Dutchman is a man of integrity and candor who has seen American statecraft up close. His years in politics gives Hoekstra the perspective that "the ruling elite in Washington is becoming disconnected from citizens." Hoekstra said when former President George W. Bush and nObama claim "Islam is a religion of peace," many citizens are taken aback. Americans think,"'Whoa. They're beheading Christians. They're suicide bombers. They're taking gays and lesbians and throwing them off the tops of buildings and they're selling women into sex slavery. That doesn't kind of look like a religion of peace to me,'" Hoekstra said in the interview.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/5134/former-intelligence-chairman-warns-stealth-jihad

Video:  http://www.investigativeproject.org/5134/former-intelligence-chairman-warns-stealth-jihad

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The Inside Track From Israel's 

Gaza Border Defenders

Paul Alster

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{investigativeproject.org} ~ Like it or not, the Iran nuclear deal is done. In much of the Middle East, defense officials in many states believe that a sizeable proportion of the soon-to-be released $100 billion Iranian windfall will be directed toward funding proxy armies of the Islamic Republic, for whom the Jewish state remains the prime target... Israel's focus is now, more than ever, on defense and surveillance. In the north, Hizballah, Iran's proxy Lebanese army, remains a massive threat to regional stability, siding with Syria's disgraced President Bashar Assad and his saviors from Russia. In Gaza, it is no secret that a previous rift between Iran and Hamas has been smoothed over to further mutual objectives and that another, and possibly more brutal round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas may not be far away. "The sanctions relief and the nuclear deal with Iran represent a strategic shift that the IDF will have to tackle over the next decade," Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot said Monday in a speech at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv. "We also see Iran's attempt to influence Arab Israelis and those in the Gaza Strip, and the estimation is that as Iran's economic situation improves, over the next one-to-two years, it will divert considerably more resources into opposing Israel, via the Iranian military industry."        http://www.investigativeproject.org/5136/the-inside-track-from-israel-gaza-border-defenders

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BREAKING: Benghazi Dem- "I Will Resign"

americanactionnews.com

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{americanactionnews.com} ~ “Cummings agreed to resign from Congress if his office was responsible for leaking Benghazi committee testimony, then tried to walk it back,” said Ferguson. “He is already under an Ethics investigation for similar charges...  If the leaks are traced back to Cummings, he has no choice but to resign from Congress for obstructing an official investigation.” During an exclusive noon campaign fundraising event at posh Capitol Hill cocktail lounge Stanton and Greene, Cummings was confronted by Stop Hilly PAC Political Director Donald Ferguson on Democrat efforts to obstruct the Benghazi probe. Stop Hilly PAC staff attended the event after the Campaign bizarrely sent an invitation to Dan Backer, the Counsel for Stop Hilly that Cummings had personally attacked in an official House press release as part of his campaign of obstruction. Say good-by Cummings.

http://americanactionnews.com/articles/breaking-benghazi-dem

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Hilly's Path Back to 9/11

Arnold Steinberg

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{frontpagemag.com} ~ The Iowa primary caucuses will be held one week from Tuesday. But a defining moment happened about three months ago in Des Moines when Hilly Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley held their second debate... That’s when Hilly was unprepared for an easily anticipated question about her connections to Wall Street. Her incoherence reminded of when Jeb Bush, once his party’s frontrunner, flubbed his most likely question: “Knowing what we know now, would you have invaded Iraq?” When that Democratic debate at Iowa’s Drake University turned to a discussion of Hilly’s relationship with Big Money, Bernie Sanders was precise.  Wall Street supports Hilly, he said, because, “They expect to get something. Everybody knows that.” And then it was Hilly’s turn.     http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261541/hillarys-path-back-911-arnold-steinberg

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Did John hanoi-Kerry

Just Admit to Funding Terrorism?

minutemennews.com

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{minutemennews.com} ~ U.S. Secretary of State John hanoi-Kerry on Thursday admitted that some of the $55 billion in sanctions relief that will be released to Iran under the nuclear deal will ultimately end up in the hands of terrorists... “I think that some will end up in the hands of the IRGC or of other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” Mr. hanoi-Kerry said in an interview with CNBC, using an acronym for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. “You know, to some degree, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented, but I can tell you this,” Mr. hanoi-Kerry continued. “Right now, we are not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time. I’m sure at some point some of it will.” Then why did you agree on this Iran deal?        http://minutemennews.com/did-john-kerry-just-admit-to-funding-terrorism/

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GOP Reps Subpoena Treasury Secretary Over nObamacare's 'Unlawful Payments'

 Cortney O'Brien

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Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew 

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{townhall.com} ~ Two GOP representatives have subpoenaed Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to provide documents to the Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding the shady business dealings of President nObama’s health care legislation... House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX)are determined to get to the bottom of the $5 billion that was shelled out to insurance companies under the so called Affordable Care Act. The payments in question appear to have been made to reduce the out-of-pocket costs for people enrolled in nObamacare. As such, Upton and Brady are requesting relevant information from Lew because such “cost-sharing reduction” payments as these appear to have been need to be appropriated by Congress. In a statement on the committee's website, they explain that they were forced to issue a subpoena after the White House dragged its feet for a year.        http://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2016/01/21/gop-reps-subpoena-treasury-secretary-jacob-lew-for-obamacare-answers-n2107506?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

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The Republican Race Heats Up 

While Hilly Clinton Falters

 Michael Barone

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{townhall.com} ~ The race for president is accelerating in high gear, or, rather, the races for president -- in the Republican and Democratic parties, in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and primaries and caucuses to come. How's it going? Let's look at these separate races.

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The Iowa Republican caucuses: The polls show a two-way race here between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, with little room for an outsider to crash through to victory as Mike Huckabee did in 2008 and Rick Santorum in 2012. Each of the poll leaders has recently lobbed a cheap-shot attack on the other, and each slapped the other down in last week's Fox Business debate.

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Trump's coy hints that Cruz may not be a "natural-born citizen" may have rolled back Cruz's Iowa surge, but Cruz knocked them down convincingly in the debate. But then Cruz slyly charged that Trump embodies, without specifying just how, "New York values," and Trump responded by reminding everyone of how all Americans admired New Yorkers for their response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

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It looks like a close contest between Cruz's base of religious conservatives (57 percent of caucus-goers in 2012) and Trump's base of non-college-graduates (who could substantially increase Republicans' previous anemic caucus turnout). Far behind, running third in polls, is Marco Rubio. Rubio, perhaps responding to Rich Lowry's observation in National Review that his sunny temperament is out-of-sync with Republican voters' anger, angrily attacked Barack nObama, Hilly Clinton, Ted Cruz and Chris Christie. Which has relevance for:

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The New Hampshire Republican primary: In 1984, Gary Hart leveraged a 16 percent second place in Iowa to a win in New Hampshire. Rubio surely hopes a distant third in Iowa, which is likely if Ben Carson continues to sag, will do something like that for him in New Hampshire, where he is competing with three other candidates -- Christie, Jeb Bush, John Kasich -- for the state's many moderate and/or secular voters.

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Christie's blunt style has been effective in numerous town-hall events there, and in the debate Rubio went after him on Common Core, gun control, the Sotomayor Supreme Court appointment and Planned Parenthood. Christie concentrated on sharp, even snide attacks on Barack nObama, hoping Republicans would forget his pre-election-week hug of the president in 2012, and came out strong on foreign policy. But his ridiculing of squabbling senators looks like a process argument that won't sway votes.

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Jeb Bush and John Kasich largely ignored their New Hampshire competitors. Bush went after Trump, with solid criticisms of his call for banning Muslims from the country. But did he show the sense of command voters seek in a president? Kasich was less frenetic than in past debates. Both candidates have records in office that deserve respect -- but haven't gotten much of that recently.

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The national Republican race: Many observers think the race will come down to a choice of Rubio and Cruz, and the two went at it on two major issues. On immigration Cruz attacked Rubio for supporting the Gang of Eight "comprehensive" legislation and Rubio attacked Cruz for flip-flopping on specifics.

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More enlightening was their intellectually serious argument over their significantly different tax plans. Expect much more of this if they achieve their goals in Iowa and New Hampshire, plus confrontations on their significant differences on foreign policy.

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The Democratic race: January Republican polls look a lot like Republican polls in December. January Democratic polls look a lot different from those taken before the two-week holiday blackout period.

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Before the break Hilly Clinton was leading Bernie Sanders by solid margins nationally and in Iowa, and they were tied in New Hampshire. In January Clinton's national lead has been cut by two-thirds; she and Sanders are statistically tied in Iowa, and Sanders has a bigger lead in New Hampshire. Did Clinton fare poorly in extended family holiday dinner table debates?

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Clinton has responded with none of the political and policy deftness Bill Clinton showed during most of his political career until he picked up his pardoning pen in the last hours of his presidency.

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She continues to hammer Sanders on gun control, the one issue on which he's to her right, but has done nothing to restore her credibility. She has run ads suggesting Sanders would cut off all government health care -- not an intellectually or politically sustainable argument.

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Clinton can still win even if she loses Iowa and New Hampshire. But she doesn't look like a strong nominee.

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http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2016/01/19/the-republican-race-heats-up-while-hillary-clinton-falters-n2106423/page/full