Archives for September 2015

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer two GOP senators for planning to offer immunity to Hillary Clinton IT expert Bryan Pagliano.  They also rip Republicans for failing miserably to stop the Iran nuclear deal.  They shake their heads as the newly spontaneous Hillary Clinton offers a focus group-tested apology for the email scandal.  And they pay tribute to the man most responsible for helping Queen Elizabeth II setting the record for the longest reign in British history.

A new generation of American Christians is setting an example for courage in the midst of an increasingly hostile culture and the rest of the nation needs to follow that lead if the most cherished of our founding principles are to be preserved, according to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

Perkins is also author of the new book, ” No Fear: Real Stories of a Courageous New Generation Standing for Truth,” which focuses on little known stories of mostly young Americans fighting back against the infringement of their rights to free religious expression.

Included in the book is a chapter on high school students who defied orders not to pray at commencement, another who recorded the anti-Christian lectures of a history professor and released them, and another on the 14-year-old pageant contestant that testified against gay marriage.  Several other stories are shared as well, each of which Perkins connects to an episode of courage in the Bible.

Perkins says there are plenty of example of courage in each generation, but he is especially encouraged by the boldness of young believers.

“We told that religion and this orthodox view of  sexuality or this orthodox view of living out your faith, that’s the over-50 crowd.  In reality, what we’re finding about young people is a greater commitment in devotion to the truth,” said Perkins.

“It means something for them to say, ‘I follow Jesus.’  There is a cost to discipleship that these young people are paying and are willing to pay today that we’ve not seen in times past,” he added.

Perkins firmly believes this fight over freedom of religious expression is about far more than any individual episode of government or educational leaders trying to stifle speech.

“This is for the very future of our country, for democracy.  Is a vibrant protection of religious freedom, and that doesn’t mean the freedom to believe something between your two ears and not be able to speak it.  It is the ability to live your life according to those orthodox beliefs, which has long been the hallmark of what it means to be an American,” said Perkins.

“We must aggressively protect that.  We must aggressively pursue that first amendment freedom in everything that we do.  And we have to fight for it,” he added, noting the fight cannot be any less intense than the battle to enshrine these freedoms into law in the first place.

“The pilgrims didn’t get on a ship and come over here and half of them die in their first year here just so they could pick a new church.  They came over here so they could establish a country, according to the teachings of their faith.  That’s what religious liberty is.  It’s the ability to live your life according to your faith,” said Perkins.

The current religious liberty debate triggers intense debate among conservatives and even Christians over when to obey or disobey the law.  Romans 13, for example, is the Apostle Paul’s admonition for believers to obey their secular government, in an epistle written while Christians lived under the oppressive Roman Empire.

“It does us in fact tell us we’re to submit to those authorities, but when we have authorities that issue edicts that are in direct confrontation to the revealed specific word or commands of God, we’re under obligation to obey God, not man,” said Perkins.

He cites Acts Chapter 5 as a prime example, where Christ’s followers refuse to obey commands to stop preaching in the name of Jesus (Acts 5:29-32, 42).  But just like the disciples, Perkins says those who take a stand for God need to be prepared for hardship.

“When it comes down to choosing whether to obey God or man, when the two are in conflict, as Christians, we have to obey God.  That does not absolve us from the consequences,” said Perkins.

He points to the saga of Kim Davis as an example.  She is the clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, who was jailed for days for refusing to issue marriage licenses in the wake of the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage.

Davis was released on Tuesday, just a short time after the interview with Perkins was conducted.  He says Davis exactly the type of courageous Christian he hopes his book will encourage or inspire.

“I’m going to give her one of the first copies of the book because she could be on the cover of this book.  One of the stories I tell in this book is of a young mother, Mariam Ibraheem, who is a Sudanese woman who was imprisoned a little over a year ago for her faith.  Little did I ever envision that I would be seeing a woman here in the United States imprisoned for her faith,” said Perkins.

The Davis story is stirring fierce debate over how people who consistently insist upon the rule of law can side with Davis, regardless of her beliefs.  Perkins says the court decision in question lacks a vital component of good law.

“An unjust law is no law at all.  That goes back to St. Augustine.  There has to be a moral foundation for the law.  And we have a long history in this country of making accommodations for people based upon their religious views,” said Perkins.

Perkins hopes to see many more like Davis, who he says has “more courage that most politicians in this country combined.”

In the bigger picture, he sees America in perilous times, from the Planned Parenthood scandal in which “we’re now parting out babies as if they were junked cars down at the junk yard” to a suspect nuclear deal with Iran to a teetering economy to a Christian being imprisoned for her faith.

He says the book is designed to provide hope and encouragement to people to do the right thing when asked to turn their backs on their faith.

“I hope they will live out their faith in such a way, in a real authentic way that impacts the world around them.  Bottom line, we have to come to a point where we have a greater fear, or reverence, for God than we do a fear of man and what they may say or do to us,” said Perkins.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review welcome news that cooler temps and other factors are leading to quieter hurricane seasons.  They groan as Colin Powell backs the Iran deal and Sen. Joe Manchin opposes it now that it doesn’t matter anymore.  And they rip Donald Trump for saying his high school years at a military-like high school gives him more military experience than some who have actually served in the military.

Despite large majorities in the House and Senate, House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price says Democratic demands for much higher spending across the board are forcing Republicans to maintain current federal spending levels until they can find enough Democratic cooperation to pursue greater fiscal discipline.

Republicans in the House and Senate approved budget blueprints months ago, that call for a balanced federal budget within ten years.  They also insisted upon “regular order” for approving annual spending bills, meaning the 13 major bills would be considered and voted on separately.  That is the way appropriations bills were passed historically and advocates say it greatly helps reduce the amount of wasteful projects that end up in catch-all omnibus spending bills.

Neither of those goals will advance this year.

“The president and Senate Democrats have decided they don’t want to pass any spending legislation unless there’s a lot more spending,” said Price, who says Obama not only wants more money across the board but especially for his favorite agencies that conservatives loathe.

“The president put out the word that he wasn’t going to sign any piece of spending legislation that didn’t increase spending on his favorite topics, like the IRS and the EPA,” said Price.

Price says the Republicans have tried to pursue a responsible process that results in less spending.

“The work that’s been done by the appropriations committees in both the House and the Senate has really been remarkable.  The Senate has actually passed a number of pieces of appropriations legislation out of committee.  The Democrats haven’t allowed those bills to come to the floor, because it takes 60 votes to get them to the floor.  But they passed out of committee and the vast majority of them in a very bipartisan manner,” said Price.

The chairman claims Republicans got the message from voters in 2014 to get the government’s fiscal house in order.  He says President Obama did not listen to voters and is playing hardball once again, leaving the GOP on defense.

“His constituency wants him to spend a whole lot more money and expand government and expand the ability of government to infringe upon people’s lives.  We simply believe that’s the wrong direction to head and we will fight as hard as we can to make certain that that doesn’t happen,” said Price.

With Obama and Democrats demanding higher spending, Price says Republicans have reluctantly concluded they need to shelve their more conservative budget blueprint and just try to stop spending from going any higher.

“The only option really is what’s called a continuing resolution, simply to continue the spending levels at the current fiscal year and extend those into Fiscal Year 2016,” said Price.  “Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that because that’s the responsible thing to do, to not spend more on the things that aren’t working but wait until we have an opportunity to work with a group of senators that actually want to solve problems as opposed to just getting in the way.”

Price hopes to avoid funding all of the next fiscal year at current rates.  He hopes at least six Senate Democrats will eventually reach across the aisle to solve the impasse.

“Hopefully what will happen is that at least six Democrats will recognize that having the president shut down the government is not a wise thing to do.  We will try as hard as we can to make certain the president isn’t able to shut down the government,” said Price.

Since the budget blueprint was approved earlier this year, taxpayer funds for Planned Parenthood have come under fire after a series of Center for Medical Progress videos exposed officials for the the nation’s largest abortion provider callously referring to conducting abortions to preserve the organs of unborn babies for research and alleged profit.  They also allege Planned Parenthood has killed babies that survived abortions and that are still moving as technicians cut through the face and harvest brain tissue for its clients.

Earlier this summer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring up an amendment to a highway funding bill that would defund Planned Parenthood.  That move would only require  a simple majority.  Instead, McConnell called a separate vote on defunding Planned Parenthood that needed 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles.  That vote failed.

In recent days, McConnell poured cold water on activists’ hopes of ending taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood this year.

““We just don’t have the votes to get the outcome that we’d like,” McConnell told WKYT’s “Issues and Answers” program. “Again, the president has the pen to sign it. If he doesn’t sign it, it doesn’t happen. But, yeah, we voted on that already in the Senate, we’ll vote on it again, but I would remind all of your viewers the way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it and the president has to sign it.”

“The president’s made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood, so that’s another issue that awaits a new president, hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood,” McConnell added.

Price admits the votes will be hard to find, but he’s still prepared to fight for defunding.

“We need to find whatever avenue is possible, whether it’s through the continuing resolution, whether it’s through an omnibus bill, whether it’s through any other piece of legislation, to try to make certain we try to hold the administration to account, yes, but to make certain that Planned Parenthood does not get the resources they currently get, over $500 million a year to continue this absolutely despicable act,” said Price.

The chairman says he understands and shares the frustration rising up within the conservative grassroots over sizable Republican majorities in Congress that cannot seem to advance their interests or stop the policies that matter most to Obama.  Price says the people need to get loud and demand better government.

“It means that more political activity needs to occur.  The American people need to engage as never before to hold people’s feet to the fire and to hold their representatives and senators to account and to demand of them responsible representative activity,” said Price.

Rules of engagement that risk the lives of our forces and harsh punishments over questionable charges have America’s elite Green Berets fuming at the Obama administration, and the former commander of all Green Berets says it’s just the latest symptoms of a military deliberately weakened by this administration military official more concerned about advancement than the good of their forces and their nation.

The litany of Green Beret frustration was detailed this week by the Washington Times.  The piece detailed several questionable punishments for elite service members over incidents that never resulted in formal charges.

Army Secretary John McHugh stripped Maj. Matt Golsteyn of a Silver Star for killing a Taliban bomb maker who took many U.S. lives.  McHugh contends there is probable cause to believe Golsteyn committed murder, even though Golsteyn was cleared by the military.

Lt. Col. Jason Amerine shared his concerns about a flawed hostage rescue program with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.  When the FBI looked into it, officials there reported Amerine to the Army, which opened a criminal investigation on Amerine, because they suspected he transmitted classified information.  No evidence was ever found to support such a charge.

The most highly publicized case in recent weeks centers on Sgt. Charles Martland, who is being expelled from the Army for roughing up an Afghan Local Police Commander after a mother and son told troops the police official raped the 12-year-old boy and assaulted the mother.

The Times also quotes former Green Beret Danny Quinn, who quit the military because of how politicians and bureaucrats were punishing troops and tying their hands in theater.

“Cases like these certainly have an adverse effect on a Special Forces soldier’s psyche,” Quinn said in the article. “It creates a mentality of playing not to lose versus playing to win. Soldiers feel like their leadership, lieutenant colonel and above, won’t support them, regardless of what they’ve done in that career to that point and what situation they’re currently in.”

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin commanded all Green Berets for a portion of his 36 years in uniform.  He says conditions and morale for our military are even worse than the Times and Quinn stated.

“There’s more that hasn’t been reported in terms of the kinds of things our special forces are putting up with now, to include rules of engagement for example.  They make it virtually impossible for them to succeed and, in many cases, even to protect themselves and the people they are responsible for,” said Boykin.

Boykin places much of the blame for this shoddy treatment of our service members at the feet of President Obama, but he says another group also shoulders a great deal of responsibility for our military decline.

“I am so disappointed in the Army leadership and the leadership in general in our military right now because they have allowed the social experimentation that has had such a devastating impact on our military,” said Boykin, who says weakening and transforming our military is a critical step in Obama’s efforts to change America.

“You can’t change society unless you change the military, because the military is such an anchor of our society in terms of values,” he said.

When it comes to the poor leadership of military leaders, Boykin says it is evident in multiple ways, starting with policy.

“The service chiefs have supported these major budget cuts as well as sequestration.  They have now, essentially, an all-out assault on religious liberty within the military, where people, including chaplains, are being punished for exercising their first amendment rights of freedom of religion,” said Boykin.

The general says he is disgusted by departing defense secretaries like Leon Panetta and Robert Gates who offered critical reviews of the administration on various issues but never confronted Obama when they had the power to do so.  Boykin believes the proper reaction of military officers to the Obama military agenda should have been obvious.

“If they really object to what’s going on, they should stand up and say so.  They should put their stars on the table and be prepared to resign as a result of not being able to support the direction our military is taking our military,” he said.

How did the military drift to the point where the top brass is now content to endorse rules of engagement that leave troops exposed and punish members for actions that merit no official charges?

“The president came in with an agenda.  He sought out, I believe, people that could be put into senior positions that were willing to support that agenda.  Either they were aligned with him ideologically, which I don’t think is the case most of the time, or they were so focused or careerism that they have been unwilling to step up and be counted,” said Boykin.

November 2016 will be a critical time for the military, according to Boykin.  He says electing a strong leader as commander-in-chief could reverse a lot of what’s gone wrong in the military over the past several years, but he fears some of the changes are here to stay.

“It’s going to take at least a decade for us to be able to turn this around.  That’s assuming we get a good commander-in-chief in who’s got some leadership and who wants to change it.  But there are some things that are not going to change.  You’re not going to roll back some of the social policies that have been implemented under this president,” said Boykin.

Boykin says he is concerned for the future of the military and the United States. He is especially worried that the absence of leadership among the highest-ranking officers is leaving young service members with no one worth emulating.

“One of the things that I fear most is when you look at the young officers in the military today, who should be looking up to proven combat leaders, who have a proven record of leading men and women in combat,” said Boykin.

“Instead of looking at them, they’re looking at careerists.  They’re looking at people who have compromised on very important and fundamental issues.  All these young leaders see that and know that.  What are we raising?  Are we raising a generation of young leaders who will ultimately be great combat leaders and great warriors, or are we raising a generation now that is going to be focused on careerism?” he asked.

“I am afraid and very concerned it will be the latter,” said Boykin.

 

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review believe the Hillary Clinton email server story will be around much longer now that her former staffer plans to invoke his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination.  They’re stunned that a federal judge threw a county clerk in jail for refusing to issue any marriage licenses based on her Christian beliefs, although they acknowledge the fierce debate within the GOP over the clerk’s rights and actions.  And they react to the on-air dust-up between Donald Trump and Hugh Hewitt over whether expecting Trump to know the leaders of major terrorist organizations constituted a gotcha question.

The conservative son of the late President Ronald Reagan is strongly rebuking a county clerk in Kentucky for refusing to obey court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Michael Reagan is a longtime radio talk show host.  He is now a motivational speaker and serves as president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation.  On Wednesday, as Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis continued to refuse issuing licenses due to her strongly-held religious convictions, Reagan tweeted “She needs to find a new job.  Agree or not, it’s the law.”

On Thursday, Davis was sent to jail by U.S. District Court Judge David L. Bunning for refusing to comply with federal court decisions demanding that she give her approval to gay and lesbian weddings.

“The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order,” Judge Bunning said in issuing the arrest order. “If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.”

Bunning was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.  He is also the son of former Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.  He chose not to fine Davis, because he suspected like-minded Americans would make sure she suffered no major financial penalties.

Reagan’s tweet in response to Bunning’s ruling: “She is an idiot.”

In a subsequent interview, Reagan believes the issue is quite simple.  It all comes down to where Davis works.

“She has a government job.  She doesn’t have a job in the private sector.  She has a job in the government.  When you work for the government, you in fact work for all the people.  You don’t get to pick and choose who you agree with and who you don’t agree with.  Like when you get elected president or governor, you’re not representing just the people who voted for you.  You’re representing all the people,” said Reagan.

He says conservatives are right to protest the Obama administration’s selective enforcement of federal laws, so they should have no more tolerance for those who do it elsewhere in government.

“Just because the President of the United States is doing what he’s doing does not mean that, ‘Oh, we get to do the same thing.’  If you’re not happy, then elect a new President of the United States.  Elect someone who better represents you and what you want to see done from the presidency of the United States of America,” said Reagan.

“That’s how simple it is.  But don’t go, ‘Well, he’s selective so I’m going to be selective,” he added.

Reagan says says he sympathizes with Davis adhering to her biblical convictions  However, he says if she believes she cannot follow the court’s orders, she has an obvious option.

“I disagree with gay marriage, but the reality is it is the law.  The Supreme Court has ruled it’s the law.  If you’re not happy with it, you can quit,” said Reagan.  “They can’t fire her.  She can quit and find another job.  I would suggest maybe she get one with the church.”

That argument is passionately disputed by other conservatives in support of Davis.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., who is also a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, argues that Davis should not be punished because there is no law she’s violating.

“The Supreme Court cannot and did not make a law.  They only made a ruling on a law.  Congress makes the laws.  Because Congress has made no law allowing for same sex marriage, Kim does not have the Constitutional authority to issue a marriage license to homosexual couples,” said Huckabee in a statement.

Reagan is not swayed by the argument that Davis cannot possibly be breaking the law since there are no specific federal or state laws she is flouting, only court decisions, which Davis defenders contend do not carry the weight of statute.

“Again, let’s start nitpicking at this whole thing.  It’s really simple.  The Supreme Court has ruled that gays, lesbians can get married.  That’s what they have ruled.  As long as they have ruled that and you’re working at a government job, then you are to enforce what, indeed, what has been approved and ruled on by the Supreme Court,” said Reagan, who says his father, as governor, was forced to comply with court decisions he did not agree with.

Some of the moderate GOP presidential hopefuls side with Reagan, including Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham and John Kasich.

“When you are a government employee as opposed to say, an employee of another kind of organization, then in essence, you are agreeing to act as an arm of the government,” said Fiorina on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

“Is she prepared to continue to work for the government, be paid for by the government in which case she needs to execute the government’s will, or does she feel so strongly about this that she wants to severe her employment with the government and go seek employment elsewhere where her religious liberties would be paramount over her duties as as government employee,” she added.

Graham, also speaking to Hewitt, was even more blunt.

“As a public official, comply with the law or resign,” said Graham.

Kasich once again made it clear he has no intention of encouraging resistance following the court decisions.

“”We’ll honor what the Supreme Court does,” Kasich told the Washington Post. “It’s the law of the land. It’s the way that America functions.”

Davis and her defenders do not suggest there is no actual law being violated, but they say her first amendment right to freely exercise her faith is being infringed by the courts.

“When people of conviction fight for what’s right they often pay a price, but if they don’t and we surrender, we will pay a far greater price for bowing to the false God of judicial supremacy. Government is not God. No man – and certainly no unelected lawyer – has the right to redefine the laws of nature or of nature’s God,” said Huckabee in his statement.

“The federal government, and by extension, the court, has no business to compel people of faith to violate their religious beliefs,” said Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Sen. Ted Cruz told the Washington Post.

Sen. Rand Paul, who represents Kentucky, was adamant in his revulsion over Judge Bunning’s decision to jail Davis.

“I think it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberty,” Sen. Paul, R-KY, told CNN. “If you want to convince people that same-sex ‘marriage’ is something that’s acceptable I would say try to persuade people” instead of using state force.

Paul says the treatment of Davis by Judge Bunning will only stiffen the resolve of traditional marriage supporters and possibly even drive some states and localities out of the marriage business altogether.

Other Davis allies suggest asking Davis to violate her conscience by handing out marriage licenses to same-sex couples is akin to forcing a pro-life obstetrician to perform abortions because it is legal.

Reagan quickly dismissed that argument as well.

“This argument goes back and forth all the time.  It gets really old and really tiresome, trying to find analogies here and analogies there and conscience and so on.  She’s out there saying it’s God’s law.  OK, it’s God’s law.  Is it God’s law that you’ve been married four times and divorced?  Is that God’s law too?” said Reagan.

“I’m really getting tired of Christians who only know how to point a finger but don’t know how to live under their own pointed finger,” he added.

Davis is married for the fourth time.  She says her conversion to Christianity happened within the past few years.

Nonetheless, Reagan believes the Bible is on his side in his belief that Davis should either quit or issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians.

“Let’s all start living under the laws that were passed.  What did they say?  “Render under Caesar what is Caesar’s.  Render unto God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17).  Well, guess what?  Under Caesar, the reality is gays can be married,” said Reagan.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review grumble over four lousy martinis, including Gwen Ifill taunting a tweet at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Pres. Obama secured the votes to save the Iran deal.  They also groan as the VA scandal only gets worse.  They assess the growing Syrian refugee crisis in eastern Europe, and they weigh in on a federal judge lifting the four-game suspension for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Thirty-four Senate Democrats are now vowing to support the Iran nuclear deal, suggesting U.S. sanctions will soon end against the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, but retired U.S. Army Lt. General William “Jerry” Boykin says the fight is not over until the votes are taken and Republicans may well deserve more blame than Democrats for this deal surviving.

On Wednesday, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., became the final vote needed to save the deal.  Her announcement followed on the heels of Tuesday’s news that skeptical Democrats Bob Casey, D-Penn., and Chris Coons, D-Del., would also back the agreement.

“I really question how long they actually pondered this, as opposed to trying to develop a strategy for how they were going to support this president.  If they had really pondered this and considered all sides of this and all the evidence, they would come out where 75 percent of the American public is,” said Boykin, who is now executive vice president at the Family Research Council.

“How could anybody ponder that and think that there’s any way that this is a reasonable for the United States or the rest of the world?” asked Boykin.

Earlier this year, President Obama announced any nuclear deal would be treated as an executive agreement rather than a treaty, meaning he had no intention of getting any input in Congress.  In response, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking Democrat Ben Cardin, R-Md., crafted legislation giving Congress the chance to reject a deal.

Unlike a treaty, which requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate to ratify a treaty, the Corker-Cardin legislation would require two-thirds opposition in both the House and Senate to override an Obama veto.

If all 34 Democrats hold firm, Republicans are powerless to stop the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran.  But Gen. Boykin says 34 promised votes are not the same as a done deal.

“It is not over yet.  There is a big rally here next week, the ninth of September.  Tens of thousands of people are going to be in the streets,” said Boykin, who is one of over 200 retired military officers who wrote to leaders of both parties in both chambers imploring lawmakers to reject the Iran deal.

“I think there’s still a good possibility that some of these Democrats will listen to the people that put them in office as their representatives and reject this deal,” added Boykin.

Not a single Republican in the House or Senate is supporting the Iran deal, but Boykin says leadership played it’s hand poorly when Obama vowed to bypass Congress on the nuclear deal.

“I think the Republicans made a terrible mistake by supporting Corker-Cardin, which usurped and subverted the U.S. Constitution.  Article II, Section 2 is very clear.  This is a treaty and we all know it,” said Boykin, stressing the deal should require 67 votes for ratification.

“We subverted that with this Corker-Cardin legislation.  I blame the Republicans, maybe even more than the Democrats, for pushing this thing through,” he added.

Boykin says his involvement with other retired military officers in trying to sink the Iran deal was a no-brainer.

“It is, in fact, a pathway to a nuclear weapon.  It doesn’t give any consideration to the four Americans that are being held.  It does in fact put billions and billions of dollars into a very rogue regime that’s been the largest sponsor of terrorism,” said Boykin, just beginning to list his criticisms of the deal.

Boykin also staggered that Iran gets so self-inspect at least one of it’s most suspicious sites and that Iran would have at least 24 days to remove evidence from newly suspected sites before inspectors would be allowed on site.  He says the security threat to the region and the world is immense.

“Much of that money will be used for Hezbollah and Hamas and other terrorist organizations.  A lot of the money will be used, once sanctions are lifted, to buy modern military technology as well as other types of weapons and technology that will further increase the military capabilities of Iran,  That will result in an arms race in the Persian Gulf,” concluded Boykin.

 

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty  applaud CNN for tweaking the rules to allow Carly Fiorina into the main debate in two weeks, since she clearly stands in the top ten right now.  They also groan as 34 Senate Democrats assure the Iran deal will be enacted and they slam the Senate GOP for allowing it to happen.  And they rip reports of school officials allegedly sending a girl home with a note forbidding her to continue using a Wonder Woman lunchbox because it has violent imagery.