Ben Carson will make a major announcement about what his intentions are in regards to running for the Presidency on May 4th. Here is more:
Ben Carson (R) will make an announcement about his presidential plans on May 4 in his hometown of Detroit.
Carson was the first serious Republican contender to launch a presidential exploratory committee, and he’s been staffing up, leading many to believe that he intends to launch his presidential campaign in the announcement at the Detroit Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts early next month.
It seems fairly obvious to me that he will announce his candidacy for the Presidency at that time. Why else would he allow the hype around his potential candidacy grow for two weeks only to announce he was not going to run? That would not make any sense to me.
Rand Paul says it is sexist to claim that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be treated as aggressively as a man
The media has been trying to portray Rand Paul as a sexist, claiming that he has a “woman problem” in an attempt to revive the Republican war on women angle which has been successful in the past. Rand Paul is having none of it, he refuses to back down. While other Republican candidates have backed down in the past out of fear of being branded Rand Paul is taking the fight to the media and it is quite refreshing to say the least, it is about time the Republicans had a candidate who was willing to fight for his beliefs.
Rand Paul appeared on “State of the Union” and when he was basically asked if he would debate Hillary Clinton differently because she is a woman this is what he had to say:
Veterans Affairs officials are illegally accessing whistleblowers medical records in retaliation
It has been quite awhile since I have written anything about the Veterans Affairs scandal but today we heard a new, and quite disturbing, accusation: Veterans Affairs officials have been illegally accessing the medical records of whistleblowers in an attempt to discredit them.
Here is more:
An official at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Monday that Department of Veterans Affairs officials are known to be retaliating against VA whistleblowers by illegally going through their medical records, in an apparent attempt to harass and discredit these whistleblowers.
This surprising testimony from Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner was delivered at a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing, which was called to discuss the problems whistleblowers face when they try to expose the ongoing failure of the VA to provide medical care to veterans.
In Lerner’s prepared testimony, she explained that many VA officials who try to reveal these problems are veterans themselves who are also seeking care at the VA. She said in some cases, VA officials try to retaliate by examining the medical records of these officials, and said this still happens — she called it an “ongoing concern.”
“In several cases, the medical records of whistleblowers have been accessed and information in those records has apparently been used to attempt to discredit the whistleblowers,” she said.
Barack Obama once promised to protect whistleblowers claiming they were “the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government” and he went so far as to sign legislation which expanded protections for whistleblowers so what happened?
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Rand Paul questions Hillary Clinton’s sincerity on women’s rights in light of foreign donations to The Clinton Foundation
To listen to the mainstream media Rand Paul has a “woman problem” but today the Senator from Kentucky turned the tables by questioning Hillary Clinton’s sincerity on women’s rights in light of the fact that The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars in foreign donations from countries with questionable–to say the least–records in regards to the rights of women.
Here is how it went down:
Marco Rubio to announce his bid for the Presidency tomorrow
As expected Hillary Clinton announced her intention to seek the Presidency in 2016 earlier today and the next candidate to enter the fray will do so tomorrow. America’s Watchtower first speculated on a Marco Rubio announcement on April 13th last month in this post and now, according to this story, he will make it official tomorrow.
Here is more:
As Sen. Marco Rubio prepares to launch his presidential campaign on Monday, he gave an exclusive interview to Breitbart News about his preparations for the big day, what this day means for his family, what he thinks his unique voice will add to the race, and what he believes the Republican Party must do in order to successfully reach the American people.
“I’m trying to keep it as normal as we possibly can,” replied Rubio, who added that he had been focusing on spending as much time as possible with his family. Rubio and his wife Jeanette have four children. “I still have a young family and I have important obligations to them, which are more important than anything else I do.”
Family has always been a priority for Rubio, and central to his message on the campaign trail. Rubio has frequently told the story of how his parents left Cuba with practically nothing to build a better life here in America. His mother was a maid and his father was a bartender, and he would mention at events that one of the things that made America so great was that he was standing at a podium in the front of a hotel ballroom very much like the ones where his father would have been tending bar at the back.
Monday, the bartender’s son will be speaking in the front of yet another room, this time as a presidential candidate. Breitbart News asked Rubio what this meant for his family.
Rubio replied that, like any family, there was a “sense of pride about what we’ve done up to this point and how far we’ve come,” but also a “sense of wonder” about this “incredible country [where] five, six decades ago, a young couple arrives with no money, barely speaking English, no connections, and very limited education, and sixty years later, their son is running for the highest office in the land.”
“I mean is there really any other country in human history where that journey would even be possible?” asked Rubio. “I think it’s a testament to [my parents] certainly, but more importantly to our country.”
Rubio told Breitbart News that his goals for Monday’s speech were simple: to share his story with America. “For me, it’s basically putting on paper and then stating in my own words why I made this decision and why I’m moving forward,” he said. “Explaining to people from both my heart and my mind why it is that I believe I’m uniquely positioned at this moment to serve our country in its highest office.”
“That’s what I’ve tried to work on putting together,” Rubio said. “We’ll be ready.”
Open thread for Sunday, April 12th: ‘Fake Plastic Trees’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, April 12th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we covered 12 stories, did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. I understand that all of you are busy and cannot always find the time to check the blog for updates so why not subscribe to America’s Watchtower and receive email updates whenever I write a new post? That is the easiest way to follow the blog to ensure you never miss another post.
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For the musical selection this week I am going to begin the “Swiss Defence League Challenge” and start the countdown of my top ten favorite bands of all time. Coming in at number 10 is a band which would have ranked much higher if they had stuck to the formula of their first three studio albums. However, not wishing to be pigeon-holed into one genre, they began recording more electronic/techno sounding music and while these albums still highlight the band’s talent I stopped following the new material.
Here is Radiohead performing “Fake Plastic Trees” live in 2003:
And here is the song which started the whole thing off:
Newly released documents show Lois Lerner was concerned about IRS emails which ‘can be seen by Congress’
It has been quite awhile since we have had any new revelations in the IRS targeting scandal but that has changed with the recent release of new documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a FOIA request. In this latest round of documents we have learned that Lois Lerner was concerned that some lower-level IRS employees did not understand that the emails they wrote could be “seen by Congress.”
Here is more:
Lois Lerner, former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), warned other IRS officials that lower-level employees “are not as sensitive as we are to the fact that anything we write can be public–or at least be seen by Congress,” according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch and released on Thursday.
In the latest batch of documents the IRS released to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which the agency heavily redacted before handing over, Lerner proposed training to help IRS employees “understand the pitfalls” of discussing “specific Congress people, practitioners and political parties” in emails that could be “seen by Congress” or the public.
“We are all a bit concerned about the mention of specific Congress people, practitioners and political parties. Our filed folks are not as sensitive as we are to the fact that anything we write can be public–or at least be seen by Congress,” Lerner wrote in an email to Holly Paz, former director of the IRS Office of Rulings and Agreements, on Feb. 16, 2012.
“We talked with Nan and she thought it would be great if R & A could put together some training points to help them understand the potential pitfalls, as well as how to think about referrals,” Lerner continued.
“Nan” refers to Nanette Downing, director of the Exempt Organizations (EO) Examinations Unit. Downing was copied on Lerner’s email to Paz, along with Tom Miller, EO technical adviser, and Judy Kindell and Sharon Light, both advisers to Lerner.
Hillary Clinton changed mind on Colombian trade deal after the Clinton Foundation received millions from oil company
In addition to the email scandal which has rocked Hillary Clinton in recent weeks there is also the reports of foreign governments donating millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. This calls into question the prospect of political favors, or a pay to play scheme if–gasp–Hillary Clinton does indeed become the next President of the United States.
While I have focused on the email scandal I have not written about possible Clinton Foundation scandal however when I read this story I decided it was time to delve into it just a little bit.
Here is the latest The Revolting Truth video by Andrew Klavan entitled “Obama’s Clown-Car Diplomacy.”
Enjoy:
With Ted Cruz and Rand Paul officially in the running for the Presidency in 2016 the race is about to heat up as it is now being reported that Hillary Clinton, to the surprise of nobody, will officially join the fray this weekend. Here is more:
On Thursday, Business Insider reported that “a source with knowledge of Hillary Clinton’s plans has confirmed that she will officially announce her 2016 presidential bid on Saturday or Sunday.” ABC News also reported that her formal announcement may come“as soon as this weekend.”
CNN reported earlier in the week that Clinton’s staffers have been told to expect an announcement at “any moment.” After she enters the race, Clinton, whose campaign signed a lease for its headquarters in a Brooklyn office building at the start of the month, will reportedly initially focus more on smaller events instead of large campaign rallies in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
America's Watchtower 