I think you will enjoy these briefs on the news of the day.
ABC’s Jonathan “Tell Me Again” Karl (realclearpolitics.com)
AND THE AWARD FOR “THE PATIENCE OF JOB” goes to White House Spokesman Sean Spicer, who saw the need to again – for the umpteenth time – to repeat the timeline of his discussion with the FBI following the agency’s determination that a New York Times account regarding communication with Russia was “BS.” Spicer showed patience above and beyond expectations Monday as ABC’s Jonathan Karl again surfaced the subject.
THE POST “SHERIFF JOE” ERA IS NOT LOOKING GOOD in Arizona’s Maricopa County. Sheriff Paul Penzone, who defeated Joe Arpaio, the 24-year holder of the office in November 2016, has released more than 400 criminal illegal immigrants from the county jail. Under Penzone’s new policy, the county is reportedly not giving ICE any notification of their release. Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain pertinent information. The left-leaning Arizona Republic, of course, endorsed Penzone after a years-long effort to get Arpaio removed from office.
JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG – A controlled audit (just 18 transactions) of how Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees used their government purchase cards revealed two purchases of fitness memberships totaling $14, 985, according to the Washington Free Beacon. So, when you read how the Trump administration plans to cut the EPA budget in favor of the DOD budget, don’t be surprised.
SESSIONS OVERTURNS TEXAS VOTER ID – For the past six years, the Justice Department, under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, has sided with civil rights groups fighting Texas’ voter ID law, which a federal judge found to be intentionally discriminatory against black and Latino voters. But under our new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the DOJ announced that it is dismissing the claim that Republican lawmakers enacted a law to make it harder for minorities to vote. Civil rights groups said it disenfranchised low-income and minority voters who are far less likely to possess an ID and face difficulties in obtaining one.
THOSE SAME CIVIL RIGHTS FOLKS often pooh pooh claims of illegals voting in Texas, yet earlier this month, a 37-year-old illegal woman in Grand Prairie went on trial after being indicted in November 2015 for the crime of “Illegal Voting,” a felony in Texas.
ON THE SUBJECT OF TEXAS – Hispanics in San Antonio are no longer in the minority as records show that they now represent 62 percent of the city’s population. But as you might expect, they still want the freebees they valued as a minority.
“DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID” is what PJ Media calls California’s suggestion that with ObamaCare in jeopardy they might consider going it alone with a “single-payer” system. Colorado voted down a similar plan last November when Democrats saw a doubling in state spending and payroll taxes in the first year alone. Oops. California’s taxes are already 60 percent higher per capita than Colorado’s.
ANOTHER PUNDIT GOES OVER THE EDGE – During the presidential campaign last year I wrote of conservative columnist/commentator George Will becoming a never-Trumper. Then neocon Bill Kristol, founder of The Weekly Standard, made news when he promoted the candidacy of Evan McMullin for president. Who? Kristol called Donald Trump a “failed, fluke candidate” on MSNBC. Joe Scarborough chided him for being bitter and “practically crying” about Trump’s candidacy. Appearing last week on The Axe Files, hosted by David Axelrod, Kristol would have listeners believe that Republicans are throwing up their hands over Trump in his first month. A globalist who believes in a robust foreign policy, Kristol expressed deep concern with Trump’s “America first” philosophy. “His comments since Inauguration Day have disintegrated into a pettiness unbefitting a man of Bill Kristol’s intellectual heft and influence,” wrote Julie Kelly, a one-time admirer of Kristol, in The Federalist.
