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Politics

lois lerner

Lois Lerner, former head of the IRS unit that decides whether to grant tax-exempt status to groups, listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 22, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Lois Lerner’s Blackberry was intentionally destroyed after Congress had begun investigating the IRS targeting of conservative groups, a senior IRS lawyer acknowledged in a sworn declaration.

In compliance with a ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, Thomas Kane, the Deputy Assistant Chief Counsel for the IRS, wrote in the declaration, that the Blackberry was “removed or wiped clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012.”

In June 2012, ex-IRS official Lerner, the former head of the agencies 501(c)-4 division, had already been ordered to appear before congressional investigators who interviewed her about the illegal targeting of conservative groups.

“We had already talked to her. Our personal staff and Oversight Committee staff had sat down with Ms. Lerner and confronted her about information we were getting from conservative groups in the state of Ohio and around the country,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News.

The IRS has not yet responded to a request for a comment addressing the latest development, but the revelation of the Blackberry’s destruction followed a bombshell Monday by government watchdog group, Judicial Watch. The group stated that Justice Department attorneys admitted the previously “lost” Lerner emails were, in fact, not lost at all. Justice confirmed in a Friday phone call the federal government backs up all computer records to ensure continuity of government in event of a catastrophe. However, they said retrieving the Lerner emails would simply be “too onerous.”

“The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search,” Fitton said. “We obviously disagree that disclosing the emails as required would be onerous, and plan to raise this new development with Judge Sullivan.”

The Obama administration immediately pushed back on the group’s claim, stating that they simply misinterpreted the Justice Department’s intention.

“There was no new back-up system described last week to Judicial Watch,” an administration official told Fox News Monday night. “Government lawyers who spoke to Judicial Watch simply referred to the same email retention policy that Commissioner (John) Koskinen had described in his Congressional testimony.”

But Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who represents other conservative groups suing the IRS, cited a whistleblower who bolsters Judicial Watch’s interpretation.

“I received information from a former Department of Homeland Security official who had security clearances. He just retired in April,” Mitchell said. “He contacted me and he contacted Judicial Watch and some members of Congress and said there is backup material.”

By all accounts, it is likely that the same judge who played a pivotal role in reversing the conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens will not take kindly to the government’s flip-flop and conduct if it turns out they are lying. Judge Sullivan took the unprecedented step when he appointed Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola to facilitate the recovery of the documents and discussions between the IRS and Judicial Watch. He further authorized the group to submit a request when needed for limited discovery into the missing IRS records after the September 10 date, which following the latest outrage, the group is certain to do.

“He gave the IRS not one, but two opportunities in court filings with him to tell him where they were,” Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch said. “There was no mention of this backup system to the court at that time.”

Meanwhile, Jay Sekulow, the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, the firm representing numerous groups who were unfairly targeted by the IRS, says the destruction of the Blackberry is just the latest crime committed.

“If you intentionally destroy evidence, that is a crime. If you make a statement in court saying the evidence is not available and it is, that is also a crime.”

Lois Lerner’s Blackberry was intentionally destroyed after

Elections

Charlie Crist Florida governor race

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican turned-independent-turned-Democrat, makes a campaign stop in Boynton Beach, Florida on Aug. 26, 2014. Crist became the first candidate to win both party primaries Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won the Democratic primary Tuesday and will now go on to face incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott in November. Crist is the first candidate to win both party nominations for governor in the Sunshine State.

In the weeks leading up to the primary election Crist openly and frequently touted the fact his campaign had President Obama’s GOTV operation on-loan, an advantage that Democrats said would close the Republican enthusiasm gap and take Gov. Scott by surprise.

“The president’s campaigns, in both 2008 and 2012, have really rewritten the book on how you get out the vote,” Crist said in an interview. “I can tell you, since I used to be one, Republicans don’t know how to do this.”

However, in politics talk is rarely truth, and Tuesday’s primary results suggest the Obama operation is not translating into energy for the former Republican.

Crist defeated Democratic challenger Nan Rich with 620,689 to 214,111 votes, or 74.4 to 24.6 percent. In 2010, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink not only defeated her primary challenger by a slightly larger margin, but she earned roughly 43,200 more primary votes than Crist, or 663,802 (76.9 percent). That’s a huge disappointment for Democrats who have spent the last two months listening to the Crist camp claim their efforts in the vote-rich, Democratic bastion of South Florida had exceeded Alex Sink’s.

Considering population growth and Democrat voter registration roles, Crist’s showing Tuesday was less than unimpressive. Incumbent Gov. Rick Scott remains the favorite in the race according to PPD’s 2014 Governors Map Predictions model for numerous reasons. For now, let’s stick with ground game operations since we are already on topic.

“Bottom line, it’s going to be who has the best ground game and can get their message out,” Scott said in an interview. “We’ve got to have a better ground game than our opponents.”

Unlike Crist, Scott built his GOTV operation from scratch, which currently boasts more than double the number of field offices Crist has borrowed from the Obama campaign. The Scott campaign says they estimate that their volunteers have already knocked on the doors of 700,000 Floridians, blowing the 200,000 doors that the Romney camp had knocked on by this point in the 2012 election out of the water.

Despite the hype and hope on the Left, Tuesday’s results clearly show Scott has a greater advantage than polls have shown, though he has now pulled ahead of Crist slightly. Scott not only won his primary with more votes — or, 833,593 votes, approximately 210,000 more votes than Crist — but he won it by a larger margin, suggesting the governor has solidified his base to a greater extent than Crist. That said, the Democratic primary was a bit more contested, so it was to be expected that Crist received a somewhat lower level of support.

But while Scott begins with 87.65 percent base support, Crist has nearly a quarter of his own party he still must win over. There can be little doubt that those who voted for Rich rejected Crist, because even though he is a well-known candidate, many Democrats simply do not trust him yet.

Now, many of those voters are more than likely to come home, but this puts Crist at a significant disadvantage, particularly in a midterm electorate. Since we first examined the Florida Governor race back in April, PPD, which is based in Florida, has been warning others not to put too much stock into notoriously inaccurate pollsters. This contest is shaping up to have built-in disadvantages for Crist most pundits and prognosticators have either honestly missed, or blatantly ignored. Instead, we have argued and continue to argue that it is best to focus on the “big picture” fundamentals and historical trends.

First, the senior voting bloc, which in recent cycles has represented an average 24 percent of the electorate, has become an increasingly reliable Republican voting bloc. Obama only carried Florida by 70,000 votes in 2012, and in midterm election cycles seniors have a far greater impact. Earlier polling in Florida historically underestimates the senior vote, and they are now beginning to break for Scott in droves.

Second, Crist is underperforming among Florida Hispanics. He leads Gov. Scott by just 47 – 35 percent in notable polls conducted in the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade. In fact, Crist has just half the support President Obama had in the region in 2012. Though a lot can happen between now and Election Day, this is a clear sign of a real danger that Scott will draw significant crossover Democratic support. Crist’s weak base of support is largely due to his pathetic showing among the county’s Hispanic voting bloc, who currently favor Scott 50 – 31 percent.

In truth, Hispanic voters have never liked or supported Charlie Crist. Even when he was a relatively popular Republican governor, prior to switching to the Democratic Party, he failed to win a majority of Hispanics. Crist was only able to carry the county once, and that was during the landslide reelection of former Gov. Jeb Bush. He was clobbered by now-Sen. Marco Rubio among Hispanics in 2010.

The Florida Governor race is eerily similar to Crist’s experience in 2010. He started out with double-digit leads over both Rubio and Scott, only to see them slowly wither away as Election Day drew closer. In early Spring, we suspected 2014 was likely to be deja vu for the former governor all over again and, after examining Tuesday’s results, it would appear our suspicions were correct.

2014 Florida Governor Polls

Poll Date Sample MoE Scott (R) Crist (D) Spread
PPD Average 7/5 – 8/18 — — 43.5 42.5 Scott +1.0
SurveyUSA* 8/15 – 8/18 564 LV 4.2 44 41 Scott +3
Rasmussen Reports 7/29 – 7/30 900 LV 3.0 42 41 Scott +1
CBS News/NYT/YouGov 7/5 – 7/24 6873 RV — 48 43 Scott +5
Quinnipiac 7/17 – 7/21 1251 RV 2.8 40 45 Crist +5

2010 Florida Governor Polls

Poll Date Sample Scott (R) Sink (D) Spread
Final Results — — 48.9 47.7 Scott +1.2
RCP Average 10/23 – 11/1 — 45.7 44.5 Scott +1.2
Sunshine State News/VSS 10/31 – 11/1 1526 LV 49 45 Scott +4
PPP (D) 10/30 – 10/31 773 LV 47 48 Sink +1
Quinnipiac 10/25 – 10/31 925 LV 43 44 Sink +1
Rasmussen Reports 10/27 – 10/27 750 LV 48 45 Scott +3
Mason-Dixon 10/25 – 10/27 625 LV 43 46 Sink +3
Florida Poll/NYT-USF 10/23 – 10/27 696 LV 44 39 Scott +5

2010 Polling At This Point In Cycle

Rasmussen Reports 8/25 – 8/25 750 LV 45 42 Scott +3    
PPP (D) 8/21 – 8/22 567 LV 34 41 Sink +7
Quinnipiac 8/11 – 8/16 1096 RV 29 33 Sink +4
Mason-Dixon 8/9 – 8/11 625 RV 24 40 Sink +16
St. Petersburg Times 8/6 – 8/10 602 RV 30 29 Scott +1
Rasmussen Reports 8/2 – 8/2 750 LV 35 31 Scott +4
Florida Poll/NYT-USF 7/24 – 7/28 590 LV 30 28 Scott +2
Quinnipiac 7/22 – 7/27 969 RV 29 27 Scott +2
PPP (D) 7/16 – 7/18 900 RV 30 36 Sink +6
Reuters/Ipsos 7/9 – 7/11 600 RV 34 31 Scott +3
FL Chamber of Commerce 6/9 – 6/13 607 LV 30 26 Scott +4
Quinnipiac 6/1 – 6/7 1133 LV 42 32 Scott +10
Rasmussen Reports 5/16 – 5/16 500 LV 41 40 Scott +1
Mason-Dixon 5/3 – 5/5 625 LV 36 38 Sink +2

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won the

Politics, Video

Ben Shapiro reacted to the new Ferguson shooting audio, telling Van Jones “we just need to shut up and wait for all the information to come out.”

Transcript

BEN SHAPIRO: Shapiro: It’s interesting; when I first heard this tape a few minutes ago, my reaction was the same as Van’s, I think, and as some of the other people’s you’ve had on this program; which is: the pause is the key, if this is what we’re talking about. But, I would caution that I think the biggest factor here is that we just need to shut up and wait for all the information to come out.

I think the biggest problem with this case is exactly what the polls show is not in that second line, “Do you think the officer is guilty or not?” but the third line, “Do we have enough information?” The fact that 68 percent of white people say we don’t have enough information yet and 39 percent of black people say we don’t have enough information yet, I agree with Van; This is a Rorschach test, but the problem is 68 percent of white people say, “Yeah, this is a Rorschach test, it’s an ink blot. I don’t know what this ink blot is. I don’t know if this ink blot is somebody stabbing my mother or whether this ink blot is a butterfly.”

And so what we really need in the country if we’re going to get past some of the racial conflict is a recognition that nobody knows what the ink blot is until we actually have enough evidence to show what the ink blot is.

Ben Shapiro reacted to the new Ferguson

Economy

burger king merger

The CEO of Burger King speaks on company’s inversion decision, but what he said isn’t stopping this Democratic senator from calling for a burger boycott. (Photo: REUTERS)

Burger King (NYSE:BKW) CEO Daniel Schwartz on Tuesday said the company’s merger with Canadian company Tim Hortons (NYSE:THI), which will move the burger giant’s headquarters north of the U.S. border to Canada, doesn’t mean they will stop paying U.S. taxes. Schwartz said the two companies will continue to operate as independent brands, and that Burger King’s U.S. headquarters will remain in Miami.

“The decision to create a new global (quick service restaurant) leader with Tim Hortons is not tax-driven,” Schwartz posted to Facebook. “It’s about global growth for both brands. BKC will continue to pay all of our federal, state and local U.S. taxes.”

However, in what many are seeing as an effort to divert attention away from leftist policies that tax away American businesses, Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown released a statement Monday calling on consumers to boycott the home of the Whopper.

“Burger King’s decision to abandon the United States means consumers should turn to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers or White Castle sliders,” Brown said. “Burger King has always said ‘Have it Your Way’; well my way is to support two Ohio companies that haven’t abandoned their country or customers.”

Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) is based in Dublin, Ohio, while the privately-owned White Castle is headquartered in Columbus.

The multi-billion dollar cash and stock deal, which will create the world’s third-largest fast food restaurant, would make the $11.4 billion hamburger company now based in Miami a Canadian firm valued at more than $21 billion. In a conference call with analysts and reporters earlier Tuesday, Schwartz confirmed Burger King’s headquarters will remain in Miami, while Tim Hortons’ headquarters will remain in Oakville, Ontario. However, the new global company will be headquartered in Canada.

But while Sen. Sherrod Brown calls for a boycott, Stephen Moore, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal and chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, says we can expect more “inversions” in the future. For Moore, this strategic maneuver performed by a growing number of U.S. firms — who have entered or thinking of entering into mergers with foreign companies in order to avoid paying high U.S. corporate taxes — is simply good business. In fact, Burger King is far from alone in their thinking.

“So far this year companies like Pfizer, Walgreens, AbbVie, and others have investigated similar moves to lower their tax bills,” Moore wrote in Heritage’s email of The Daily Signal. “Expect a blizzard more of these tax moves if the U.S. corporate tax isn’t reduced quickly to at most the average in the industrialized world of 25 percent.”

The combined federal and state corporate income tax rate in the state of Florida is 38.6 percent, near the highest in the world and more than a third higher than the combined national and provincial rate of 28.0 percent in Ontario, Canada. Rather than boycotting the increasing number of American firms, Moore and others suggest Brown and his Senate colleagues should concern themselves will comprehensive tax reform, or even a complete overhaul of the corporate tax code.

“Better yet would be to abolish the corporate tax altogether and tax the shareholders on these profits. This would cause a flood of companies to come to the U.S. rather than leave,” Moore added.

The business practice of inversion has come under fire from the Obama administration, which is currently using the Treasury Department to find ways to punish or ban inversions. Warren Buffet, one of the administration’s most vocal economic advocates, has committed $3 billion of preferred equity from Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) to finance the deal in a move widely criticized as hypocritical. Meanwhile, with little leadership or will from the White House, the bipartisan effort to close loopholes in the corporate tax code have stalled in Congress.

Not all in the Democratic Party are willing to overhaul the corporate tax code even if it means closing loopholes and ending corporate welfare, as is evident by Sen. Sherrod’s priorities. Despite Mr. Schwartz’s assurances, both lawmakers and economists agree that inversion is driven by over-taxation. But instead of addressing the cause of inversion, Brown and other Democrats would rather gin up their base with calls for boycotts and charges of unpatriotic tax evasion. Yet, Moore says U.S. tax policy is unpatriotic.

“The hamburger is a quintessential American food,” Moore said. “What could be more unpatriotic than giving firms like Burger King a financial incentive to leave the U.S. because of the high tax rate here? Thanks, Congress!”

The CEO of Burger King speaks on

Politics

Lois Lerner IRS emails

The former IRS official Lois Lerner, the figure at the center of the IRS scandal. (Photo: Getty)

Obama administration lawyers admitted that the long-sought Lois Lerner emails, which they first claimed were lost due to hard drive failure, aren’t really lost at all. The latest development came a little over a months after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered agency officials to explain under oath how a treasure trove of IRS emails to and from Lois Lerner, the central figure in the targeting scandal, went missing.

“Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

Sullivan gave the IRS 30 days to comply in the form of a declaration by an “appropriate official.” So, why haven’t they been handed over to independent investigators yet?

“The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search,” Fitton said. “We obviously disagree that disclosing the emails as required would be onerous, and plan to raise this new development with Judge Sullivan.”

IRS officials, including IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, told members of Congress and congressional investigators that thousands of Lerner’s emails sent prior to 2011 were lost and that the data was unrecoverable. As far as the back-up system, they also said that, too, had been erased beyond recovery. Despite numerous IT experts stating that this was an impossibility, Congress was told roughly a half dozen IRS officials in addition to Lerner — most were also suspected of targeting — had also lost emails due to computer crashes.

“This is a jaw-dropping revelation,” Fitton said. “The Obama administration had been lying to the American people about Lois Lerner’s missing emails. There are no ‘missing’ Lois Lerner emails – nor missing emails of any of the other top IRS or other government officials whose emails seem to be disappearing at increasingly alarming rate.”

In his ruling last month, Judge Sullivan took the unprecedented step to appoint Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola to manage and assist in discussions, and ordered the IRS to work with Judicial Watch to decide the methods used to obtain the missing records from various sources.

The order came as part of a freedom of information lawsuit by the government watchdog group. Judge Sullivan has encouraged Judicial Watch to submit a request for limited discovery into the missing IRS records after September 10.

Lois Lerner headed up the IRS unit in charge of granting tax-exempt status to 501(C)-4 groups, which embarked on a partisan crusade to target conservative groups using the power of the most feared agency in the federal government. Past emails obtained by Judicial Watch and congressional investigators show Lerner and her associates at the IRS disagreed with the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which dealt with the restriction and regulation of campaign spending by corporations, and decided to take the law into their own hands.

Lerner was held in contempt of Congress, and even referred Iowa Sen. Grassley for a completely unjustified internal audit, which an employee refused to move forward on.

Obama administration lawyers admitted that the long-sought

Elections

rob astorino andrew cuomo chris christie split

Rob Astorino, Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie are shown in this composite. (Photos: AP/Getty)

A whopping 83 percent of state voters say government corruption is a problem, and by a 48 – 41 percent margin they say Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is part of the problem, not the solution. Still, in the latest head-to-head matchup conducted by Quinnipiac University, Cuomo leads Republican challenger and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino by a healthy 56 – 28 percent.

That margin is relatively unchanged from the 57 – 28 percent lead Cuomo held in a May 21 survey conducted by the independent and reliable pollster Quinnipiac University, despite recent charges of corruption in the governor’s mansion. From early June to the end of summer, however, Cuomo’s numbers have precipitated on average by 10 points, suggesting the governor’s recent slew of negative press may be having a modest impact.

Even The New York Times slammed Cuomo for what appears to be a systemic effort to squash investigations into alleged political corruption by a special task force he created in cases that seemingly led to the governor and his politically-connected friends.

Cuomo set up the Moreland Commission last summer to root out corruption in state politics, but within two months, investigators discovered violations of campaign-finance laws and issued a subpoena to a media-buying firm that had placed millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements for the New York State Democratic Party.

When news of the subpoena hit Mr. Cuomo’s most senior aide, Lawrence S. Schwartz, the commission was ordered to withdraw it. Why? Mr. Cuomo is buddies with the people at Buying Time, who count him among their client list. The panel’s chief investigator, Regina M. Calcaterra, blatantly explained why the subpoena was withdrawn in an email to the two other co-chairs later that afternoon.

“They apparently produced ads for the governor,” she wrote.

Yet, New York State voters approve 57 – 38 percent of the job Cuomo is doing, and say 56 – 36 percent that he deserves reelection, which again, is little changed from the May 21 survey. Cuomo gets a 55 – 36 percent favorability rating, compared to Astorino’s 25 – 22 percent favorability, but a whole 51 percent said they don’t know enough about Astorino to even have an opinion of him.

“As they have in the past, voters say government corruption is a big New York problem,” said Maurice Carroll, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “How is Gov. Andrew Cuomo doing in handling ethics problems? Not too hot, voters say. In fact, voters say he’s part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Abandoned by the RGA, Astorino’s campaign has been slow to get out of the gate. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said he doesn’t invest in “landslides” or “lost causes.”

However, at one point in his own first bid for governor of the Garden State, many pundits and pollsters would have said the same for the now, still-popular state leader. A little over a months ago when Christie made those comments, there were many in the Republican column who thought them inappropriate, as New York’s Democratic dominance on the national level has not historically translated into shutting out GOP candidates statewide. Former New York Governor George Pataki, a popular Republican governor and Astorino backer, was among those who criticized Christie’s comments.

To me, it’s incomprehensible and disappointing,” said Pataki.  “To believe in July that you can predict with absolute certainty an election in November, is not right.”

But, now, with ethics and corruption charges against Cuomo, more and more Republicans are questioning the head of the RGA’s decision.

“A lot of things are going to happen,” Pataki added, “and the Moreland Act commission is one of them.”

In fact, the polling data lend support to this criticism, as the number of voters who say they are aware and knowledgable about the Moreland Commission is low. Voters by a 37 – 8 percent margin, including 28 – 11 percent among Democrats, say that the Cuomo Administration interfered with the Moreland Commission. However, a sizable 53 percent don’t know enough about it. And among those who say they know are overwhelmingly susceptible to an alternative.

At a press conference back in July, Astorino said if Christie was “unable to help a Republican candidate for governor, then maybe he should consider stepping down as chairman of the RGA.”

“That’s his job,” he added.

In total, of the 51 percent of New York State voters who have read or heard anything about the governor’s decision to end the Moreland Commission, 77 percent say the shutdown was a political deal with legislative leaders while 11 percent say the decision was good government. Even voters affiliated with the governor’s own party say by a 68 – 15 percent margin that it was a political deal.

“Voters who know about it say overwhelmingly it was a political deal, not good government, when Cuomo killed the Moreland investigating commission,” Caroll said. “More than one-third of voters also think that the governor’s office interfered with the commission.”

New York voters have a long history of backing anti-corruption candidates no matter the party affiliation. From former Gov. Grover Cleveland to America’s Mayor Rudy Guiliani, New York State voters have punished in-power party politicians when the anti-corruption message was effectively communicated. Without money and backing from the Republican Governors Association, however, the story is unlikely to penetrate the consciousness of the electorate.

“Is the governor’s race all over? Did it ever start?” Carroll asked.

Polling shows Astorino is only getting the “standard Republican numbers,” and would need more support to expand that base. As of now, he isn’t getting it from the RGA. If Christie and the RGA continue to leave him out in the cold, Astorino intends to at least remain vocal in his criticisms.

“Maybe it’s inconvenient to come over the bridge to New York to help a Republican candidate for governor here,” Astorino told the New York Daily News. “That’s his call, whether he wants to or not, but as RGA chair he has governors and candidates who have a chance to win … and it’s incumbent upon him to help all of us.”

PPD’s 2014 Governors Map Predictions model rates the New York Governor race “Safe Democrat.”

Poll Date Sample MoE Cuomo (D) Astorino (R) Spread
PPD Average 7/5 – 8/17 — — 56.0 27.3 Cuomo +28.7
Quinnipiac 8/14 – 8/17 1034 RV 3.1 56 28 Cuomo +28
Siena* 8/4 – 8/7 863 LV 3.3 58 26 Cuomo +32
NBC NY/WSJ/Marist* 7/28 – 7/31 852 RV 3.4 54 23 Cuomo +31
CBS News/NYT/YouGov 7/5 – 7/24 6788 RV — 56 32 Cuomo +24
Siena* 7/13 – 7/16 774 LV 3.5 60 23 Cuomo +37
NBC NY/WSJ/Marist* 6/23 – 7/1 673 RV 3.8 59 24 Cuomo +35
Siena* 6/8 – 6/12 835 RV 3.4 57 21 Cuomo +36
Quinnipiac 5/14 – 5/19 1129 RV 2.9 57 28 Cuomo +29
Siena 4/12 – 4/17 772 RV 3.5 58 28 Cuomo +30
Siena 3/16 – 3/20 813 RV 3.4 61 26 Cuomo +35
NBC NY/WSJ/Marist 2/28 – 3/3 658 RV 3.8 65 25 Cuomo +40
Siena 2/16 – 2/20 802 RV 3.5 64 22 Cuomo +42
Quinnipiac 2/6 – 2/10 1488 RV 2.5 58 24 Cuomo +34
Siena 1/12 – 1/16 808 RV 3.4 67 19 Cuomo +48
Quinnipiac 11/20 – 11/24 1337 RV 2.7 56 25 Cuomo +31
NBC NY/WSJ/Marist 11/18 – 11/20 333 RV 5.4 65 23 Cuomo +42
Siena 11/11 – 11/14 806 RV 3.5 63 24 Cuomo +39

Despite voters saying Gov. Andrew Cuomo is

US

California gun laws

July 30, 2013: Guns to be melted lie in a pile near a news conference at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s 20th annual Gun Melt at the Gerdau Steel Mill in Rancho Cucamonga, California. (Photo: Reuters)

A federal judge struck down a California gun law requiring a 10-day waiting period for the state’s gun purchases, but limited the ruling for current gun owners who have already passed a background check and for those who have a permit or certificate of eligibility to own a gun.

“As an individual plaintiff I was ecstatic,” said Madera County resident Brandon Combs, who is also the executive director of the Calguns Foundation. “It was years and an awful lot of work.”

Eastern District of California Judge Anthony W. Ishii ruled Monday that the law requiring a waiting period violated the Second Amendment rights of those who have already been approved to own a gun. The ruling includes those who have previously undergone a background check and already own a gun, people with concealed-carry permits and people who have a state certificate of eligibility to own a gun.

“Under state law, you can only buy one handgun a month,” Combs said. “We think that is simply unconstitutional.”

However, first-time gun buyers would still be subject to the waiting period, which Ishii emphasized in his ruling.

“Given the nature of the challenges made, the Court emphasizes that it is expressing no opinion on the constitutionality of the 10-day waiting period in general or as applied to first time California firearms purchasers,” he said.

The Sacramento Bee reports Ishii stayed his ruling for 180 days in order to give California time to change the law.

The law was challenged by two California gun owners and two gun rights groups. In their lawsuit against the Department of Justice and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, they argued that the 10-day waiting period was unconstitutional.

“This is a great win for Second Amendment civil rights and common sense,” Jeff Silvester, one of the gun owners who was a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. “I couldn’t be happier with how this case turned out.”

Meanwhile, despite its limitations, Combs praised the ruling.

“California gun owners are not second-class citizens and the Second Amendment doesn’t protect second class rights,” Combs said. “This decision is an important step towards restoring fundamental individual liberties in the Golden State.”

A federal judge in California struck down

World

us drones

U.S. military drones flown on missions in war zones are operated out of Nevada’s Creech Air Force Base. (Photo: REUTERS)

President Obama authorized surveillance missions conducted by U.S. drones over Syria last weekend, and now the first flights have begun their missions, according to the Associated Press. While the authorization was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the AP reported that the flights had started Tuesday, a development that could precede airstrikes against Islamic State militants based in northern Syria.

On Monday, the Syrian regime demanded that the U.S. seek permission before launching any airstrikes on its territory against Islamic State targets, but whether that permission was obtained has not yet been confirmed.

Top Pentagon officials have made it clear that the only way to stop the threat from the ISIS militants is to go after the group inside Syria, rather than striking at fringe positions in Iraq.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Martin Dempsey, told reporters in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday that the U.S. wants more clarity on the militants in Syria, but would not comment on the surveillance flights.

“Clearly the picture we have of ISIS on the Iraqi side is a more refined picture,” said Dempsey, using one of the acronyms for the Islamic State group. “The existence and activities of ISIS on the Syrian side, we have … some insights into that but we certainly want to have more insights into that as we craft a way forward.”

As of now, there are no orders to strike at targets in Syria, though for the first time since the ISIS threat became public record, the potential for that to change is growing. President Obama has come under pressure to respond following the beheading of American journalist James Foley by a man Western intellegence sources claimed Saturday to be Abdel Majed Abdel Bary.

Public comments made Monday by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem revealed a striking different tone out of Syrian officials since Obama balked on his self-imposed “red line.” Speaking in Damascus, al-Moallem his government is ready “to cooperate and coordinate” with any side, including the U.S., or join any regional or international alliance against the Islamic State group. He also said that any strike on Syrian soil should have the consent of the government.

“Any strike which is not coordinated with the government will be considered as aggression,” he said.

During Obama’s calls for airstrikes in the country last year, many opposed the action based on the reports that ISIS fighters were consuming the rebels, which in essence, would have helped the militant terror group. The Syrian foreign minister said his country had been warning of the terrorist threat inside of Syria, but “no one listened to us.”

However, State Department officials weren’t exactly keen on the idea of a truce between the Assad government and the United States, stating that the decision to move forward with strikes against ISIS will be made with or without their consent.

“Just because the Syrian regime may be taking on ISIL or …speaking publicly about that, and certainly the United States is, it certainly doesn’t mean we’re on the same side of the coin here,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday.

Asked specifically whether the U.S. would have permission to act in Syria, she said: “I think when American lives are at stake, when we’re talking about defending our own interests, we’re not looking for the approval of the Syrian regime.”

President Obama authorized surveillance missions conducted by

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Dr. Ben Carson and Reverend Jesse Jackson appeared together on Fox News Sunday to offer insight into Ferguson from differing perspectives. Jackson ran into a little trouble in Ferguson last week when protesters cornered Jesse Jackson at a McDonald’s in Ferguson, Missouri, trashing him for what they saw as profiteering over Michael Brown’s death, rather than actually being a leader.

“Hey, Jesse Jackson. How you doing? Are you here to support us?” one protester began, approaching Jackson’s vehicle and recording the interaction.

“You’ve been marching all day long? We haven’t seen you marching all day long,” he said. “Are you going to pay the bond of those brothers that’s been locked up?”

Dr. Ben Carson said that the issues in the black community run deeper than superficial police brutality, though there are certainly instances across America. However, he said the good police do in the black community far outnumbers such instances.

Carson said that race could be removed from this debate altogether, and the problems in the black community suggest something else is at play, such as economic status, education and cultural collapse.

Jackson dodged responding to statistics showing that homicide is the number one cause of death among black men ages 15- to 34-years old, and 91 percent of those homicides are black on black murders. Jackson made the claim that justice is served faster when it is black on white crime, rather than white on black crime.

Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, noted that only 3 out of the 53 police officers on the Ferguson Police force are black, yet 67 percent of the city’s population is black. Further, 86 percent of traffic stops targets blacks in Ferguson last year, according to a U.S. Census report conducted by the Missouri AG.

Carson said that we needed to get people involved in their communities not just in Ferguson, but around the country. He said that — while environments and other outside factors play a role — the one in charge of what ultimately happens to a person in their lives is themselves.

Dr. Ben Carson and Reverend Jesse Jackson

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