Archives for May 2012

North Carolina is the latest state featured by Project Veritas in its series on how America’s electoral system is extremely vulnerable to voter fraud.  In last week’s North Carolina primary, James O’Keefe and his colleagues demonstrate how easy it is to obtain ballots even if the person has publicly professed not to be a U.S. citizen.  Poll workers insist that the ridiculously dressed activists do not need to show identification or a passport.  The video further shows an election official telling Project Veritas that it’s up to the public to expose voter fraud.  O’Keefe also tells us about his group’s visit to the University of North Carolina, where a dean and a program director laugh off confessions of voter fraud and even seem to encourage it.  Yet a day later, both officials tell conservatives that voter fraud never happens.  And Project Veritas catches up with an election official who says he can no longer agree to uphold the state constitution in his oath since voters passed the amendment establishing only traditional marriage as the definition of marriage in the state.

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Eighteen months ago, a parent in Giles County, Virginia, objected to the Ten Commandments being posted in a high school as part a huge collage of documents linked to America’s political and legal heritage.  The school district does not want them removed and the case remains in U.S. District Court.  In the past few days, Federal Judge Michael Urbanski offered a compromise – scrap the first four commandments and leave the final six.  Urbanski suggested that could resolve the dispute since the first four commandments directly refer to God and the final six concern interaction among humans.  Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel is representing Giles County in the case.  He says several other documents in the school display reference God, including the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence, but no one is asking that those be taken down or edited.  Staver says the school district is rejecting the judge’s proposal and so is the parent, who is allied with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  Mr. Staver explains where the case stands now and what will likely happen if court-ordered mediation does not succeed.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review like the news that the DNC is not going to pump money into the Wisconsin recall effort.  They also offer condolences to conservatives in California as Gov. Jerry Brown begs voters to raise their own taxes to deal with massive debt.  And they shake their heads as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gets the really personal frisking from the TSA.

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When terrorists attacked the United States on Septembewr 11, 2001, the U.S. intelligence community was woefully unprepared for the work that had to come next – rounding up and interrogating as many Al Qaeda leaders and operatives as possible.  Jose Rodriguez was director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service at the time.  He tells us why intelligence officials found themselves flat-footed on 9-11 and what the initial steps were to prepare for the eventual questioning of high profile terrorists.  Rodriguez explains why the standard FBI questioning was good but did not yield results quickly enough and how the list of acceptable Enhanced Interrogation Techniques was born.  Some news reports suggested top Al Qaeda figures like Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were subjected to waterboarding dozens and dozens of times, but Rodriguez tells us how many times the terrorists themselves claimed to have been waterboarded.  He also addresses the controversy over the destruction of videotapes of interrogations and insists the move had nothing to with alleged incidents of torture and everything to do with protecting the identity of interrogators who were shown on tape.  Media reports of these stories and other classified programs frustrate Rodriguez greatly and he explains why such leaks are so damaging.  We also ask Rodriguez what if anything he would have done differently and how he looks back on his colleagues and the decisions he made in the first several years in the War on Terror.

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A few weeks ago longtime Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch fell just short of securing the Republican nomination for a seventh term at the state’s GOP convention.  As a result, Hatch faces a primary challenge from State Sen. Dan Liljenquist, who is embracing the Tea Party in his hopes of scoring an upset victory.  Liljenquist says over the past 36 years Sen. Hatch has contributed much more to the nation’s debt than working to reduce it.  He also doesn’t think Hatch’s increasingly conservative positions are genuine but rather a politically expedient move to save his own job after watching fellow Sen. Robert Bennett booted out of office in 2010.  Entitlement reform is also high on the Liljenquist agenda.  In the Utah legislature, he has led successful efforts on pension reform and Medicaid reform.  He tells us why he believes that track record can succeed at the federal level as well and adds that reforming Medicare and Social Security is no longer a choice but a necessity.  And Liljenquist renews his challenge to debate Hatch several times before the June 26 primary.

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A few weeks ago longtime Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch fell just short of securing the Republican nomination for a seventh term at the state’s GOP convention.  As a result, Hatch faces a primary challenge from State Sen. Dan Liljenquist, who is embracing the Tea Party in his hopes of scoring an upset victory.  Liljenquist says over the past 36 years Sen. Hatch has contributed much more to the nation’s debt than working to reduce it.  He also doesn’t think Hatch’s increasingly conservative positions are genuine but rather a politically expedient move to save his own job after watching fellow Sen. Robert Bennett booted out of office in 2010.  Entitlement reform is also high on the Liljenquist agenda.  In the Utah legislature, he has led successful efforts on pension reform and Medicaid reform.  He tells us why he believes that track record can succeed at the federal level as well and adds that reforming Medicare and Social Security is no longer a choice but a necessity.  And Liljenquist renews his challenge to debate Hatch several times before the June 26 primary.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are impressed with most of the content in Mitt Romney’s commencement speech at Liberty University.  They also point out the falsehoods in a new Obama attack ad against Romney but fear that the ad may be effective anyway.  And they enjoy updating the latest developments surrounding Elizabeth Warren’s heritage.

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House Republicans passed a plan this week to redistribute the spending cuts forced by the failure of the super committee last year.  The original plan calls for many of the cuts to come from defense spending, but most Republicans say reductions of that size leave our security vulnerable and require the cuts to be spread around to other programs.  Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo explains what the GOP is trying to do and where the party wants to cut instead of making huge reductions in defense.  Pompeo also describes his effort to end funding for the Economic Development Agency – and explains what that office even does.  The congressman explains how big of an issue deficit spending is to his constituents and why he thinks Mitt Romney is up to the job of reining in the red ink.

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Craig James has enjoyed some big wins in Texas.  As a star running back in SMU’s famed “Pony Express” backfield, James was one of the most celebrated athletes in America.  He later enjoyed impressive NFL and sports broadcasting careers.  But none of that is why James is running for U.S. Senate in Texas.  He tells us how a childhood spent moving from apartment to apartment because of evictions helps identify with the very real struggles of Texans today.  He also points to 30 years as an entrepreneur in ranching and real estate.  James says he’s running for office because he understands the economy and know to grow jobs and sees two critical paths to getting the job done.  James says he would abolish the Department of Education and return that money to local leaders.  He would also encourage life trades that don’t require a college education to be taught in high school since jobs like plumbers, electricians, mechanics and other solid careers don’t require tens of thousands to be spent on higher education.  Energy is next on his priority list for growing the economy.  James would also end the Environmental Protection Agency and responsibly tap American resources to create jobs, reduce prices and end dependence upon foreign energy sources.  Mr. James also expresses strong support for Israel and details his uphill battle in the crowded GOP race to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review react to President Obama saying the American people forget how bad the economy was when he took office – and so does he.  They also pick apart the irrelevancy and inaccuracies of The Washington Post story branding Mitt Romney as a high school bully.  And they discuss the report in a new book that Bill Clinton wanted Hillary to run against Obama this year.

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