Pete Kaliner

Pete Kaliner

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Pete's Prep: Friday, June 22, 2018

One immigration bill dies, another is punted until next week

This week, the House of Representatives defeated an immigration bill sponsored by Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). It was dubbed "the conservative" bill.

It included border wall funding.

The GOP leadership's bill (which is being branded as "The President's Bill") was supposed to get a vote shortly after.

It was re-scheduled for a vote today.

And now a vote was postponed until next week.

From The Hill:

House GOP leaders in a surprise move Thursday night pushed back a vote on a compromise immigration bill until next week, underscoring the difficulty they're facing in winning votes — and how the stakes have been raised by the crisis at the border.

The decision to delay the vote, which had already been postponed from Thursday to Friday, followed a two-hour conference meeting designed to brief members on the measure’s contents.

Lawmakers, many of them worried about backing a measure that conservatives have described as providing amnesty to some undocumented workers, had complained that they didn’t have enough time to read and digest the nearly 300-page bill rolled out late Tuesday night.

Lawmakers leaving the meeting said the bill will need to be changed even more if it is to have any hope of winning passage.

What's in this version?

The House bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for so-called Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and earmark $25 billion for Trump's border wall and other security measures. It would also make changes to two legal immigration programs.

Democrats opposed both measures, and have promoted a return to the previous "catch-and-release" policy, that allows people to illegally enter the country, claim asylum, and be released if they are accompanied by a child.



McCain's fingerprints on the IRS-Tea Party scandal

Well... I, for one, didn't expect this development.

Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to “audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous.”  Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.

The explosive exchange was contained in notes taken by IRS employees at an April 30, 2013, meeting between Kerner, Lerner, and other high-ranking IRS officials. Just ten days following the meeting, former IRS director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner admitted that the IRS had a policy of improperly and deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status from conservative non-profit groups.

Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a “marathon” meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.  Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the “worst decisions I have ever seen.”

So, this describes pressure coming from the GOP. 

But Judicial Watch has previously discovered how Lois Lerner was being pressured from Congressional Democrats and the Obama DOJ and FBI to "prosecute and jail the groups the IRS was already improperly targeting."



GOP lawmaker sparks outrage for suggesting boys like girls

Just to get it out of the way.... if this was a Democrat, the media would frame this as "Republicans pounced."

But Sen. Norm Sanderson is a Republican. So the story is the scandal. And in this case, the scandal is that Sanderson thinks boys will join organizations to meet girls.

From the News & Observer:

The students were introduced to legislators in the Senate Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday morning after traveling from Anson County to Raleigh for the Future Farmers of America conference. Sen. Norm Sanderson, a Republican from Pamlico County, is chairman of the committee.

After the introduction, Sanderson offered advice to the student group from the lectern.

"I know for sure that if you continue to recruit young ladies like (those sitting in) the front row, you're not gonna have any trouble recruiting young men," Sanderson said. "We'll have more farmers then we know what to do with."

Outrage ensued.

Democrats pounced - accusing Sanderson of being a sexist. Democrats on social media called the comment "gross" and "inappropriate."

Even conservatives - like Donald Bryson from Civitas and Rick Henderson from Carolina Journal - panned the comment. 

Bryson said, "I cringed." 

Henderson called the comment anachronistic, joking it came from 1955 - before adding, "Or is that too recent?"

Which brings me to the headline of the N&O story:

NC lawmaker refers to high school girls as 'recruiting' tool, faces backlash


Did Sanderson actually do this?

No. No, he did not.

He said "if you continue to recruit young ladies like (those sitting in) the front row, you're not gonna have any trouble recruiting young men." 

He does not refer to those girls as "recruiting tools." And if that IS how you choose to interpret his comment, it means he's actually insulting boys. He is saying girls are being attracted to the program based on its merits, while boys are being attracted to the program because they are  attracted to girls.

He's suggesting that boys will only be enticed to join the organization to meet girls - which is a shallow and stereotypical assessment of boys.

But I saw no outrage over that.

I suspect this was a poor attempt at complimenting a group of students as bright and pretty.

And, yes, that is anachronistic.

We may spend time and money making ourselves look handsome or pretty every day, but woe unto him who compliments those efforts.

Should Sanderson have said it? No. It wasn't the proper venue for that kind of informality and familiarity. 

Is he a sexist for saying it? No.



But, wait! There's more!

State Senator Terry Van Duyn (D-Buncombe) says she'll support district elections in Asheville City Council races. But ONLY IF the General Assembly accepts her amendment.

The Asheville Humane Society needs people to adopt animals because its shelter is overcrowded.

White people in Asheville protest against ICE and immigration enforcement.

And...


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