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Palestinians Hire Advisors In U.S.

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The firm, Independent Diplomat, has a history of taking on clients seeking statehood.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki

Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

NEW YORK — The Palestinian mission to the United Nations has recruited an advising group to represent it in the United States, new records filed with the Department of Justice this week show.

The Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations has signed a three-month contract with Independent Diplomat, a diplomatic advisory firm helmed by Carne Ross, a former high-level British diplomat who resigned from the Foreign Office in protest of the Iraq War.

Independent Diplomat has signed on to "provide advice to the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations on its diplomatic strategy. The advice will include analysis of the diplomatic situation, for example at the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and obtaining views of the US Government," the filing in the Foreign Agents Registration Act reads.

The Palestinians' move to hire advisers in the U.S. comes as they have increasingly gone to the U.N. to seek recognition of a Palestinian state, a tactic that angers the Israelis.

The firm will "seek the views of the US Government by meeting with key officials and desk officers in the State Department and other US agencies," the FARA filing reads.

The agreement began on Aug. 1 and stipulates that it continue for the duration of the recent Gaza war, which has since concluded, and not continue for more than three months. The agreement also stipulates that Independent Diplomat not work with any other party involved in the crisis.

Independent Diplomat has a history of taking on clients seeking statehood, including Somaliland and Western Sahara.

"We've talked to them about this and that for a while and I think we offered our help to them and we've begun a sort of relationship," Ross said. The scope of the agreement "obviously includes Gaza but also includes their future," he said.


Bush World Agrees: Condi Rice Should Be NFL Commissioner

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The internet has spoken, and so has Karl Rove.

Condoleezza Rice

Michael Fiala / Reuters / Reuters

As pressure mounts on the National Football League to replace its commissioner, a quirky draft movement has formed on the internet behind former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — and her old colleagues in the Bush administration tell BuzzFeed News they're on board.

Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff under George W. Bush, said Rice would excel in the position.

"I think Condi would succeed in any job she had, as she did when she was National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, Provost of Stanford, etc.," Rove said. "If it's a job she wants, with her encyclopedic knowledge of the sport and passion for the game, I have no doubt she'd be great."

Elise Jordan, who served as Rice's speechwriter at the State Department, added, "She knows and loves the game, and her leadership could energize the league and attract a broader fan base for the sport."

The Condi-for-commissioner buzz started with a column earlier this week by liberal Washington Post writer Jonathan Capehart, who noted that Rice, a diehard Browns fan, has publicly coveted the gig in the past. Since then, writers, bloggers, and tweeters across the political spectrum have talked up the idea, noting that handing the reigns over to a woman of color might be the best way for the league to seriously address its issues of abuse and violence.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Bush, said Rice has always worn her football obsession on her sleeve.

"She would talk a lot about it even with foreign leaders who did not necessarily follow the game," including Kurdish leaders in Iraq, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, he said.

"She brings energy, diversity, increased interest by women in the game... I think it would be a positive change at the top. I think it would be great," Khalizad said. He added that the NFL could use an aggressive leader to tackle the league's cultural issues laid bare in the recent Ray Rice scandal.

"When she sees a problem, she goes after it. She's tenacious."

GOP Congressman: Spy On U.S. Mosques To Stop ISIS Recruitment

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“Undocumented Democrats are more important to [President Obama] than national security,” Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King says.

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Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King is calling for the U.S. government to begin spying on American mosques to stop ISIS' recruitment efforts, charging the militant organization is actively operating in mosques across the country.

Although there is no evidence that ISIS is running a nationwide recruitment effort or using mosques as centers to target would be jihadis, King insisted the Obama administration must target mosques for domestic surveillance activities.

"Here's a thought that occurred to me," King said speaking to the Deace Show Thursday. "I didn't look at the population of Germany at the beginning of the Third Reich but it's probably in the area of 70-80 million is my guess. And out of that Hitler in a few years build something that cost the lives of roughly 60 million people. The radical islamists have 1.3 or more billion muslims to work with. Now they aren't all supporters. Daniel (inaudible) says 10-15% of them, but that is a huge population to draw from."

King said ISIS recruiters were "certainly in the United States," citing mosques in Virginia and Minneapolis to say mosques were the "communications centers" for ISIS.

"They are all over the world. They're certainly in the United States. They're recruiting fighters for ISIS right out of Minneapolis out of the Somali enclave. And that's going on in other parts of the country too."

King said another area that ISIS recruitment was going on was "the largest mosque in Virginia."

"So they have a network that they flow in. And it isn't that all muslims are a supporter of ISIS but the network that flows through the mosques is certainly the communications centers. We ought to be looking at this dot to dot. And we ought to have people in those mosques watching to see what's going on," the conservative Republican argued.

King -- who is one of loudest critics of President Obama's immigration polices — said the president refused to secure the border because "undocumented Democrats are more important to him than national security."

"And we ought to be just secure our border, secure our border. We are spending more than enough resources to get 99.9% control of our border. We refuse to do it because we have a president who refuses to enforce the law because he's got political gain on the over side. Undocumented Democrats are more important to him than national security," King charged.

White House: U.S. "Is At War With" ISIS Same Way We Are With Al-Qaeda

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John Kerry opted to call the mission a “very significant counter-terrorism” mission instead.

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The White House says the United States is at war with ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria in the same way we are at war with al-Qaeda and its affiliates. White House press secretary Josh Earnest made the comments Friday in his daily press briefing.

"This is not a situation where it is the United States versus ISIL," Earnest said. "The fact is ISIL has indicated that they're ready to go to war against the world. And this president, as is expected of American presidents, is stepping up to lead an international coalition to confront that threat and to deny ISIL a safe haven. And ultimately this international coalition will be responsible for degrading and destroying ISIL."

Earnest said the United States was "at war" with ISIS, comparing it to our strategy with al-Qaeda and its global affiliates.

"So I think what you could conclude from this is the United States is at war with ISIL in the same way we are at war with al-Qaeda and its affiliates all around the globe," Earnest added.

The comments echoed comments earlier Friday from Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.

"But make no mistake, we know we are at war with ISIL, in the same way we are at war, and continue to be at war, with al-Qaeda and its affiliates," said Kirby.

The comments contrast those of Secretary of State John Kerry who declined Thursday to directly call the U.S. campaign against ISIS a war.

"What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation," Kerry told CNN. "It's going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it's a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts."

Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Wisconsin Voter ID Law For November

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Hours after hearing arguments on the issue, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that Wisconsin officials “may … enforce the photo ID requirement” for the upcoming elections.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Steve Marcus / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Friday afternoon reinstated a Wisconsin law requiring photo identification to vote at this November's election.

Just hours after hearing arguments from lawyers, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals effectively reversed, in part, a trial court ruling that found the law unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

As to the photo ID requirement, which was before Judges Frank Easterbrook, Diane Sykes, and John Daniel Tinder on Friday, the court ruled:

Having read the briefs and heard oral argument, this court now stays the injunction issued by the district court. The State of Wisconsin may, if it wishes (and if it is appropriate under rules of state law), enforce the photo ID requirement in this November's elections.

Although the court noted that this only is a ruling as to whether the requirement can be implemented for this election — noting that "an opinion on the merits will issue in due course" — it clearly signals the court's likelihood to reverse the trial court decision when it does so.

"The panel has concluded that the state's probability of success on the merits of this appeal is sufficiently great that the state should be allowed to implement its law, pending further order of this court," Friday's order stated.

It was not immediately clear whether the plaintiffs would try and appeal the decision as to this election to the Supreme Court, but Wisconsin officials almost immediately declared that, for their part, they will be enforcing the photo ID requirement in November's elections (absent a further court ruling stopping enforcement):

Read the 7th Circuit's order:

Read the 7th Circuit's order:

Election Law Blog / Via electionlawblog.org


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This Is How The Clinton Campaign Begins

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Actually, it’s been going on for years.

Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed

Let's just get this out of the way now: She's running.

Hillary Clinton, who will be spending Sunday at an Iowa greasefest, has not announced her second candidacy for president. She hasn't, in fact, done much since she left Foggy Bottom; she hasn't done much politics since the Summer of 2008. And so the obsessive observers of her career and of American presidential politics have not had an occasion to declare the obvious. After all, what has changed, other than the passage of time?

But asking what has changed is not quite the right question to ask of a Clinton campaign. That's because campaigning has been the Clintons' default mode since at least the late 1980s. And their campaign by now is not the typical, tiny pre-campaign organization of a married couple and a couple of trusted advisers. It is a vast apparatus of relationships and obligations, promises and chits, that has been moving steadily forward. It began when she stood on a stage with her old rival Barack Obama in a place called Unity, New Hampshire, in June of 2008, and swore her allegiance to the Democratic nominee and, less noticeably, to her own ability to fight another day. This is a road that leads straight to this weekend's stop, Senator Tom Harkin's famous steak fry.

This isn't the first time a Clinton campaign began with this steady march from inaction to inevitability. In fact, I wrote the same words that top this column 10 years ago, about the same woman. Then I was a local politics reporter and got a bit of mileage out of a New York Observer piece in a genre I've always liked: stating the obvious, forcefully.

It was outrageously premature, but even then I'd been covering the junior senator from New York long enough to have the clear sense that this wasn't exactly about covering one woman's decision, more about an apparatus that, switched on, was chugging away.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has a re-election campaign in front of her in 2006, but as far as many around her are concerned, the train has already departed for a destination two years farther out-the Presidency.

"She is going to focus on going for Senate and getting that out of the way, but the eye is always on the prize," a former aide to Mrs. Clinton told The Observer.

I reached back out this month to the usual suspects I quoted in that piece — organizer Harold Ickes, a couple anonymice, and strategist Howard Wolfson to ask if I should write it again. "Seems reasonable," replied Wolfson, who now works for Mike Bloomberg. (That was an improvement on his 2004 reply: "You can say, 'Wolfson would not discuss '08.'")

Today's Clinton campaign, like the one back then, is a tractor trailer moving down the highway, one whose driver — Hillary — can exert some control over its direction and speed, but whose stopping distance is measured in miles, and who can barely control the thing at all once it's rolling downhill.

So the question isn't what she's done to run; it's whether she's made any effort to hit the brakes, or whether anything has fallen unexpectedly across her path. Since leaving the State Department last February, Clinton has focused primarily on making money. She's on the speaking circuit, which while occasionally embarrassing is obviously a much cleaner and less compromising way to cash in than the rainmaking roles — "advising," "consulting," "lobbying" — where non-celebrity politicians make their bread. She's written an innocuous book, come out on the correct side of various major issues — from Syria to Ferguson — once the dust had settled and the politics were clear; and rested up a bit. Her husband has been uncharacteristically low-profile, her daughter has left a job that threatened to become an embarrassing instance of patronage.

Clinton hasn't done anything much, that is. Certainly nothing even the most obsessive readers of tea leaves would interpret as a decisive move.

But then that is the weird thing about the Clinton campaign. The campaign is the default. The tractor trailer has now proceeded rather far down the highway. It's moving at a constant speed, not doing anything much to attract attention. But all the exits have passed, and all that's left are those runaway truck ramps, not the sort of place Clintons historically wind up.

DREAMer Activist Challenges Joaquin Castro Over Obama's Immigration Delay

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At a Voto Latino event with Rosario Dawson, Joaquin Castro, and Eliseo Medina, a DREAMer repeatedly challenged them over Obama’s immigration delay and plans for a new Texas detention center.

Adrian Carrasquillo/BuzzFeed

SAN ANTONIO — A routine panel discussion Saturday with Rep. Joaquin Castro and other activists turned contentious when one audience member challenged the panelists on President Obama's immigration executive action delay.

The Voto Latino event Saturday featured Rep. Joaquin Castro, longtime immigration activist for the SEIU Eliseo Medina, and the group's co-founder, actress Rosario Dawson discussing immigration policy. Marco Malagon, 32, an activist with United We Dream, an organization that represents DREAMers, stood up and publicly challenged them. Malagon held up his hand for a long time until he was finally called on by Dawson.

He had sharp questions for each panelist, asking Castro why he has not stopped a detention center being built in Dilley, Texas, and asking Dawson why Voto Latino doesn't feature DREAMers in its conversations about immigration policy.

Castro said one of the considerations is that detention centers have to exist, and that people can't just be out on the street. He said one of the issues he's looking into is how can conditions in detention centers be improved in general, but he said he is still talking to stakeholders about the center Malagon asked about.

But Malagon's most stinging critique was aimed at Eliseo Medina, a 50-year labor and immigration activist who holds an entrenched position with the SEIU labor union. Medina sent a letter to the White House along with faith organizations and others earlier this year asking for a delay to administrative actions to give Congress space to enact broader immigration legislation. Malagon said Medina was turning his back on the affected community quietly, but publicly on stage saying he was upset about Obama's decision.

"When we asked the president to give enough space to the Republicans to pass immigration reform — obviously they failed," Medina said after the event. "When they failed, we said the president needs to act because at the end of the day if we don't get comprehensive immigration reform that will cover everybody, we're gonna have to keep fighting this issue one at a time, again and again." And he referred to Malagon's criticism on his strategy that failed. "We have an obligation to take every chance to get it done, you don't always hit a home run when you swing but you have to keep swinging," he added.

After the event, Castro told BuzzFeed News, "It just shows the strong passion and spirit that this movement has always had and it continues. And it's part of what's necessary for change. But that movement also has to do more than berate politicians and even the White House because if that's the case then all we do is end up banging our head against the wall. It has to morph into a full-scale voter registration mobilization movement and if it doesn't then it's falling short."

Voto Latino founder Maria Teresa Kumar spoke in front of the crowd of San Antonio Latino college students after Malagon's questions and said the organization has featured DREAMers in its campaigns and said undocumented people can still encourage people to vote and share links with friends to do so. She spoke with him afterwards, where he became emotional saying the decisions by leaders have effects in the undocumented community.


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Arizona Congressman Claims It's "True That We Know That" ISIS Is On The U.S. Border

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“It is true that we know that ISIS is present in Ciudad Juarez or they were within the last few weeks.” It appears he’s citing a report that federal authorities have dismissed.

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A Republican Arizona congressman says ISIS currently is or has operated on the U.S. border in the past couple weeks, appearing to cite a report that federal authorities have dismissed.

Rep. Trent Franks, appearing on E.W. Jackson's radio program over the weekend, appeared to cite a report from a conservative website that has been dismissed by federal law enforcement officials about ISIS operating in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on the border with El Paso.

"It is true, that we know that ISIS is present in Ciudad Juarez or they were within the last few weeks," Franks said. "So there's no question that they have designs on trying to come into Arizona. The comment that I've made is that if unaccompanied minors can cross the border then certainly trained terrorists probably can to. It is something that is real."

Franks appears to be referring to a report from the conservative watchdog website Judicial Watch, which report ISIS was operating on the U.S. Mexican border.

A DHS spokesman said the Judicial Watch report was false, telling the Daily Mail that "we are aware of absolutely nothing credible to substantiate this claim."

A federal law enforcement source also told El Paso's ABC7 the claim in the story was "unverified and unlikely."


Harkin: Hillary Clinton's "Fingerprints Are All Over" Obamacare

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“I want you all to know that her fingerprints are all over that legislation.”

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Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin said Sunday Hillary Clinton's "fingerprints are all over" Obamacare. The Iowa senator was introducing Clinton to speak at his 37th annual Steak Fry.

"One of the things she always worked on was advancing this concept, this idea that health care should be a right and not a privilege in this country," Harkin said. "So, Hillary was not there when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, she was of course secretary of state, but I want you all to know that her fingerprints are all over that legislation. It would not have happened without her strenuous advocacy in that committee all those years."

Speaking at high-profile event, headlined this year by former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is often seen as a sign of laying the foundation for a presidential run.

LINK: Hillary Clinton Returned To Iowa To Say She Is “Thinking” About Running For President

Immigration Activists Don't Buy Hillary Clinton's "Political" Answer

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An Iowa DREAMer confronted Hillary Clinton a day after a similar moment with Joaquin Castro. Disgust at her answer — and a sign that “no Democrat is safe.”

youtube.com

Three young, undocumented people confronted Hillary Clinton in Iowa Sunday as she signed items and greeted supporters, the latest sign that President Obama's decision to delay action on immigration won't take the pressure off his party.

One woman asked her about President Obama's decision to delay expected executive actions on immigration.

"Hello my name is Monica Reyes and I'm an Iowa DREAMer," said the 23-year-old activist and senior at the University of Northern Iowa, using the term often employed for undocumented youth brought to the country as children.

Clinton gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and yelled "yay!"

Asked to give her thoughts on Obama's decision, Clinton answered, "Well, I think we have to just keep working, can't stop ever working."

Cesar Vargas, the co-director of the Arizona-based Dream Action Coalition, then told Clinton the president had broken promises to the Latino community and asked if she supported his decision. Clinton ended the back and forth.

"Well, I think we have to elect more Democrats," she said, before walking away.

But a leader of the small group of DREAMers who crashed the Iowa event said they weren't satisfied with the answer.

"It was sad to hear the answer she gave. It shouldn't be about the politics," said Erika Andiola, a high-profile DREAMer who shot the video.

"If Hillary Clinton is going to try to stand for the immigrant community she's going to have to show she's better than the president — a champion for immigrants and not just another deporter-in-chief," Andiola told BuzzFeed News.

And she said Clinton will have to take substantive stances if she hopes to be seen as a leader by the immigrant community.

"For her to answer like that to Monica whose parents could be deported, it's such a political answer," Andiola said.

DREAMers have played a large role in the recent immigration debate, and many benefitted from President Obama's decision to normalize the status of some people who arrived in the country as children. Reyes told BuzzFeed News she works with immigrants and DREAMers in Iowa and felt confronting the former Secretary of State was important because of the outsized attention Iowa will receive in the coming 2016 race for president.

She said she enthusiastically supported Obama in 2007, when she went see him speak at a middle school in New Hampton, Iowa during his campaign for the Democratic nomination, and listened as he spoke up for young immigrants. But since then, she said, she has been disappointed with the stops and starts on immigration and delays.

"A lot of Latinos did vote for him and support Democrats and we're not getting our voice taken seriously," she said. "We have to keep pressuring them on their promises."

That appears to be exactly the strategy that has emerged after Obama's recent decision to delay promised executive action that would improve the legal situation of millions of undocumented immigrants. At the time, even White House press secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that the president knew he would take pressure on himself from activists. It now appears other leading Democrats will be asked to answer publicly for his decision by DREAMers.

The confrontation in Iowa with Clinton comes a day after a Texas DREAMer confronted Joaquin Castro and longtime union activist Eliseo Medina over the president's delay.

"No Democrat is safe because they chose politics over giving relief to families," said Andiola.

LINK: DREAMer Activist Challenges Joaquin Castro Over Obamas Immigration Delay

Snoop Dogg Tweeted, Then Deleted, An Anti-Gay Slur At An Instagram User

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The post was up for more than a half hour shortly after midnight on Monday.

About 12:30 a.m. ET Monday, Snoop Dogg posted the following image to his Instagram account, a screen capture of another user's account, with anti-gay language in his comment on the photo:

About 12:30 a.m. ET Monday, Snoop Dogg posted the following image to his Instagram account, a screen capture of another user's account, with anti-gay language in his comment on the photo:

Via instagram.com

Here's that comment, expanded:

Here's that comment, expanded:

The picture, and comment, were deleted from Instagram a little past 1 a.m. Monday, more than 40 minutes after they were posted:

The picture, and comment, were deleted from Instagram a little past 1 a.m. Monday, more than 40 minutes after they were posted:

Via instagram.com

Here was the tweet of the Instagram post:

Here was the tweet of the Instagram post:

Via Twitter: @snoopdogg


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Fox News Is Confused

Fox News Hires Michelle Fields As A Contributor

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After being considered by ABC to join The View , Roger Ailes hires the Fox News regular to be a network contributor.

At age 24, political commentator Michelle Fields was on Details "Next Wave of Political Pundits" list. Now, sources tell BuzzFeed News she's been hired as a paid contributor by the network and will appear on Fox News and Fox Business programming.

Fields has been a fixture on the highly-rated Cashin' In, a successful weekend show that was recently noted by Fox News in the press for its outstanding ratings, and was reported to be on ABC's long list of women considered to replace Sherri Sheppard and Jenny McCarthy on The View.

LINK: Young, Pretty, And Political: The Highs And Lows Of Conservative Media Stardom

Democratic Congressman Will Introduce Bill Authorizing Use Of Force Against ISIS

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The bill will also end the 2001 and 2002 AUMF laws. “If Congress just sits on its hands, it will rue the day that it did because it will set a precedent.”

Stringer/Iraq / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff will introduce a bill Tuesday that provides direct authorization to fight ISIS while also sunsetting the two laws the administration has used to justify current efforts against the militants.

Schiff's authorization for use of military force bill allows the president to use "all necessary and appropriate" force against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. It also immediately sunsets the 2002 Iraq War AUMF, and does the same to the 2001 AUMF 18 months later.

Regardless of whether a new AUMF is passed, President Obama has said he has all the authority needed to fight ISIS right now from the 2001 and 2002 AUMF laws. It's a justification that's drawn some criticism — from those who question whether ISIS is covered under the 2001 AUMF at all, to others who note that Obama once vowed to repeal the 2001 AUMF and is now using it to justify this new campaign.

Schiff told BuzzFeed News he wants to pass the bill not necessarily to directly affect operations overseas, but to protect Congress's role in declaring war down the road.

"It will preserve Congress's role in the decision about when we send our sons and daughters to war. I'm as much concerned about the future as I am the present," Schiff said. "If Congress just sits on its hands, it will rue the day that it did because it will set a precedent."

Though the effort is unlikely to reach a vote as election season nears — House Speaker John Boehner hasn't said whether he'd bring a vote to the floor — Schiff said he hopes the bill can at least be a conversation starter for a vote some time during the lame-duck session.

Republican Rep. Frank Wolf also introduced an AUMF directly addressing ISIS, though his doesn't seek to change the other AUMF laws. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his Foreign Relations Committee are also said to be working on legislation to authorize force against ISIS.

Schiff said he hoped his version was broad enough to draw support from all sides.

As of Monday afternoon, Schiff said his bill has no co-sponsors. Schiff, who has long championed the effort to repeal the 2001 and 2002 AUMF laws, chalked that up to still only having an early version of the draft legislation, but also noted seeing some "timidity" from members.

"There's a growing level of support that Congress really needs to act to authorize what the president has requested," Schiff said. He added that there is "irony" in the fact that the administration "believes it's necessary for us to authorize the funding but not to authorize the war effort."

The White House recently called on Congress to approve "Title 10" authority, which would allow the U.S. to train and arm Syrian rebels fighting against ISIS. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday he didn't see any issue with asking Congress to fund a program they don't yet have all the details about.

"The president believes it is a priority for the administration to be given the authority it needs to begin training and equipping — ramping up our assistance to Syrian opposition fighters," Earnest said. "We're doing that principally because the president believes we need boots on the ground to take the fight to ISIL in Syria.

"We need to make sure that we are improving the ability and expanding the capacity of Syrian fighters to take the fight to ISIL in their own country," he added.

Ted Cruz Had Advance Warning Of Alleged Hezbollah Ties At Christian Conference

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Cruz staffers were told about the ties between some speakers at the event and the terrorist organization the night before his speech.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Aides to Sen. Ted Cruz knew that speakers at a Christian conference — where he gave a much-publicized speech defending Israel — had alleged ties to Hezbollah the night before the conference, sources told BuzzFeed News.

Cruz keynoted the yearly summit of In Defense of Christians, a group that focuses on Middle Eastern Christians, and used his time to blast those who "will not stand with Israel," producing an angry reaction in the room. Since video of the audience booing Cruz offstage on Wednesday night emerged, the speech — and whether his pro-Israel remarks were a planned stunt — has become a significant source of controversy on the right.

On Wednesday, hours before the event, a story came out that detailed the issues with the conference in the Washington Free Beacon.

But according to a conservative political operative who is close to the incident, Cruz's team found about the alleged links between the Lebanese Shia terrorist group Hezbollah and some of the event's speakers on Tuesday evening, the night before he was scheduled to speak.

Other members of Congress — Sen. Mark Kirk, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Rep. Ted Deutch — were also scheduled to appear at the summit, but pulled out when they learned the information beforehand.

Joseph Cella, a spokesperson for In Defense of Christians, confirmed that Kirk, Ros-Lehtinen, and Deutch all ended up not appearing at the conference as scheduled.

"We did have a total of five speakers who were unable to participate as originally scheduled," Cella said in an email. "Patriarch John X Yazigi (one of his villages was caught between ISIS and Syrian government forces and he remained behind to tend to their spiritual needs), Canon Andrew White (a condition involving a blood condition he has reactivated and he had to be hospitalized and treated in London), as well as these members. We had a total of 30 members of the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle, who did appear, including several who were not scheduled to appear, and not invited, but just showed up and addressed the gathering. Considering the number of speakers we had, 54, this sort of thing happens. All in all a great success which we are very happy with."

The Free Beacon reported that the Syriac Orthodox Church patriarch had posted photos of a meeting with Hezbollah officials on his Facebook page, and that Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Raï had defended Hezbollah and attacked Israel in an interview. The story described how other conference participants had defended the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

The timeline of when Cruz learned that some of the speakers reportedly had ties to Hezbollah raises questions of to what extent Cruz planned for the type of crowd reaction that he received. A spokesperson for Cruz confirmed that the senator's office knew about the issues with the speakers in advance.

"As I've told others, we were aware as of late the night before, that some people at the conference may not agree with him," said Catherine Frazier, Cruz's press secretary. "But Cruz is unafraid to talk to those who disagree. Unlike other politicians, he does not only speak at events where the crowd is guaranteed to agree with him. That said, there was no anticipation, and no way to anticipate, such a hostile reaction."

On Wednesday night, Cruz, the keynote speaker, was shouted at by the crowd after telling the conference that "Christians have no greater ally than Israel."

"I will say this, I am saddened to see that some here, not everyone, but some here are so consumed with hate," Cruz said as the crowd reacted. "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, I will not stand with you." He then walked off the stage.

Cruz gave his first interview post facto to the Free Beacon, which had broken the story about connections between some of the speakers and Hezbollah, and expressed astonishment at the crowd's reaction.

"I've certainly encountered audiences that disagreed with a particular point of view. But this virulent display of hatred and bigotry was remarkable, and considerably different from anything I've previously encountered," he said.


Administration: Obama Will Not Campaign On ISIS For Midterms

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The president will not turn his war on ISIS into a campaign issue.

Pool / Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Obama will not tout his war on ISIS on the campaign trail, senior administration officials said Monday.

Officials noted recent polling showing Americans support the president's plan to go after ISIS with U.S. airstrikes, military aides for Iraq's government and Syrian rebels, all backed up by a coalition of other nations. Polls have shown majorities support the plan but also doubt that it will work.

The strong public support for Obama's decision to engage ISIS militarily is a bright spot for a president suffering from lagging poll numbers ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. But at a background briefing with reporters, senior administration officials said the president would not turn it into a campaign push.

Obama has enjoyed at least some bipartisan support for engaging ISIS, and the White House has insisted throughout the lead up to the airstrikes that politics did not play a part in Obama's decision-making. Both Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush used national security policy extensively on the campaign trail in the past.

Though the elections are less than two months away, the senior administration officials said not to expect Obama to hit the trail for several weeks. Using Obama as a surrogate for Democrats is tricky this cycle with his party trying to hold Senate seats in states where the president is deeply unpopular. Even with the difficulties, Officials said Obama would be a part of the Democrats' get-out-the-vote strategy, participating in campaign events in the final month before Election Day.

Officials said they were cautiously optimistic about the Democrats' changes to hold the Senate in the fall, noting polling showing Democratic incumbents holding on to slim leads in several key states. An official said the landscape this month was improved over last month, when it looked like Republican challengers would be able to pull away in some places where the races have remained tight.

Media Groups Fight In Court To Make Pennsylvania Execution Facts Public

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Pennsylvania’s desire to keep lethal injection drug information hidden from the public “is flatly inconsistent with our governmental values and our Constitution,” media organizations argue.

The execution chamber at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview in Pennsylvania.

Via portal.state.pa.us

WASHINGTON — A legal battle is brewing in Pennsylvania over whether state officials can keep how the state performs executions a secret.

In the lead up to the state's first scheduled execution since 1999, a handful of media outlets asked a federal judge to unseal records in an ongoing lawsuit that described the drug protocol the state planned to use. On Friday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett issued a temporary reprieve of execution for Hubert Michael, Jr., whose execution had been set for Sept. 22.

But the legal battle over the records is unresolved. The media groups, which include three Pennsylvania newspapers and the Guardian US, argue the details of how an execution is performed — because they are part of the court record in the ongoing lawsuit brought by inmates challenging the execution protocol — is a First Amendment issue. As such, they say, the state must show there's a good reason for not disclosing the details.

The government's reason for the secrecy, the media organizations claim, is that the companies providing the lethal injection drugs and testing of those drugs "do not want public scrutiny and may cease providing the drugs in order to avoid it." Specifically, "The only way to protect the [the Department of Corrections'] ability to carry out death sentences, they argue, is to protect the [the Department of Corrections'] chosen suppliers from the discomfort of public scrutiny."

The drug protocol has never been used by the state, however, and the media organizations state "there has been an exponential growth in the public's concern about execution by lethal injection following reports of problematic executions in Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona."

The media groups argue the name of the pharmacy where the protocol's drugs are being prepared and the name of the entity testing the drugs should be disclosed, citing in particular the one of the drugs, the difficult-to-obtain phenobarbital. When the decision to seal the records was made, they note, the arguments were only between the plaintiff inmates and the state officials. The media and public interests in "fuller disclosure" were not represented.

"Increased public scrutiny of critical government functions cannot be the justification for overriding the public's First Amendment right to scrutinize those government functions," the media groups, represented by the ACLU, state. "The purpose of the First Amendment right of access is to facilitate public scrutiny of government, not to frustrate that scrutiny."

Because of the governor's decision to issue a temporary reprieve of execution, however, the urgency of the group's filing has lessened. A response to the media groups' filing is due to be submitted in the case by September 26.

Media groups have entered an ongoing lawsuit to have court records about Pennsylvania's execution process made public:

Media groups have entered an ongoing lawsuit to have court records about Pennsylvania's execution process made public:

The lawsuit has been going on for some time, brought by death-row inmates challenging the execution drug protocol, but the question of why records in the case have been sealed has not previously been addressed:

The lawsuit has been going on for some time, brought by death-row inmates challenging the execution drug protocol, but the question of why records in the case have been sealed has not previously been addressed:


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Congressman Says Obama's ISIS Comment Might "Just Be Single Dumbest Thing" President Ever Said

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Whoa.

Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina said President Obama made the dumbest comment by a U.S. president, ever.

"'The Islamic State is not Islamic' might just be single dumbest thing an American President has ever said," Duncan said in a Facebook post on Sept. 11. "I was disappointed in the President's remarks and disheartened that he took an issue that could have generated strong bipartisan agreement but instead presented us with a plan that raises many concerns. In my opinion, the President's speech on combating ISIS was 'JV' at best."

In President Obama's address to the nation last week on his strategy to combat ISIS, the president said, "ISIL is not Islamic."

"Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not 'Islamic.' No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state," Obama said. "It was formerly al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, and has taken advantage of sectarian strife and Syria's civil war to gain territory on both sides of the Iraq-Syrian border. It is recognized by no government, nor the people it subjugates. ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way."

Obama comments echo those of former President George W. Bush who sought to categorize al-Qaeda terrorists as not practicing the true faith of Islam during his time in office.

"Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith," President Bush said in a speech in October 2002. "We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn't follow the great traditions of Islam. They've hijacked a great religion."

"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," Bush said in a speech to Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. "That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war."

Phil Robertson: Diseases Like AIDS Are God's Punishment For Immoral Behavior

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“Now to me either it’s the wildest coincidence ever that horrible diseases follow immoral conduct, or it’s God saying, ‘There’s a penalty for that kind of conduct.’ I’m leanin’ toward there’s a penalty toward it.”

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Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson thinks AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases are God's punishment for immoral behavior such as ones that aren't "one man one woman," he said in a recent interview.

While promoting his new book unPHILtered: The Way I See It, Robertson spoke at length about what he called the "physiological downside to immorality" in an interview with Family Research Council president Tony Perkins' radio program Washington Watch last week.

"I mean, a great question to ask is 'Why is it that all of these just—is this coincidental that viewing all of the immoral conduct that America now is participating in, I've asked a lot of people, Do you think it's a coincidence that all of these debilitating — and literally, it can cause death — diseases follow that kind of conduct?" Robertson said.

The Duck Dynasty family patriarch, who came under fire last year for anti-LGBT remarks in an issue of GQ went on to claim to it's probably not a coincidence that diseases arose from behaviors he categorized as immoral.

"God says, 'One woman, one man,' and everybody says, 'Oh, that's old hat, that's that old Bible stuff' and I'm thinking well, let's see now. A clean guy, a disease-free guy, and a disease-free woman, they marry and they keep their sex between the two of 'em, uh, they're not gonna get chlamydia and gonorrhea and syphilis and AIDS. It's, it's safe."

Robertson concluded that such diseases from such behaviors are punishment from God.

"Now to me either it's the wildest coincidence ever that horrible diseases follow immoral conduct," he said, "or it's God saying, 'There's a penalty for that kind of conduct.' I'm leanin' toward there's a penalty toward it."

"So, you read in the Bible, you say well let's see, 'Well, it's one man, one woman,'" he said. "Any logical person would say, what the guy is sayin' is, that'd be me, is that if you wanna be safe from a lot of debilitating diseases, that's the route to go. And it agrees with what God says so it's just one argument after another, Tony, but what can I say all you can do is just show 'em that and say, 'Man, we ought to think about this Jesus stuff.'"

Texas Congressman: ISIS Could Work With Drug Cartels To Get Into U.S.

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“I mentioned several weeks ago if ISIS wants to come into the United States they’ll contact the drug cartels.”

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A Republican Texas congressman says ISIS could work with Mexican drug cartels to enter the United States.

"I asked the chief border patrol section…chief, I said, 'Who's coming across the border from Mexico?'" Texas Rep. Ted Poe said during an appearance on Tony Perkins' radio program Washington Watch Monday. "And he said, 'Since January, people from 144 countries have come across.' He said, 'Just before you got here three Ukrainians came across the Texas-Mexico border.'"

"It's because it's open. Wide open for anyone who wishes to cross."

The Texas congressman also claimed ISIS could work with Mexican drug cartels to enter the United States.

"I mentioned several weeks ago if ISIS wants to come into the United States they'll contact the drug cartels who bring people to the United States illegally and they will bring them," he said. "The Pentagon at first said, 'Oh, that's not true.' And now the Pentagon is backing off. So let's do the obvious. Let's protect the southern border of the U.S."

American officials have repeatedly pushed back at comments from Republican members of congress and have dismissed reports that ISIS is operating or plans to use the border to enter the United States.

"There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border," Homeland Security officials said in a written statement to New York Times.

Over the weekend, Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks said, "It is true that we know that ISIS is present in Ciudad Juarez or they were within the last few weeks."

Franks appeared to be cited a report from the conservative watchdog website Judicial Watch.

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