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Showing posts with label Murkowski. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Any Republican Who Skips Convention To Protest Trump, Is A Loser And Should Lose His Credientials!

Trump's Try at GOP Unity Could Be Tripped Up By Convention-Skippers

(Wire Services Photo)

By Greg Richter | Monday, 30 May 2016 08:32 PM

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High-profile Republicans skipping the party's convention this summer could put a dent in presumptive nominee Donald Trump's attempt to unite the party behind his candidacy, Fox News reports.

The list includes members of both the House and Senate as well as almost every living Republican presidential nominee, Fox notes.

Trump ran as a political outsider and surprised most political observers by actually capturing the nomination after leading the polls practically every week since announcing in June. But now that he has achieved the needed 1,237 delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot of the convention, he has worked to bring those he spoke out against back into the fold.

In some cases, that has worked. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is the most recent of Trump's vanquished 2016 foes to announce his support. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired surgeon Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have jumped on board as well, though sometimes with reluctance.

But former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham have said they won't be there. And neither will Bush's brother George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, the two most recent Republican presidents.

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Others cite tough re-election campaigns behind their need to stay home. They include New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte. Some such Republicans are expected to distance themselves from Trump much as Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2012, who skipped that convention. She won re-election, though President Barack Obama lost the state to Republican Mitt Romney.

Special:

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Ward Baker, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told senators they didn't have to attend.

The list of definite no-shows compiled by Fox also includes:

2008 Republican presidential nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain
2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval
Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson
Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt

If Trump isn't entirely successful in his efforts to unite the party, it might not matter that much, some observers say.

"Trump is a master entertainer and more than likely going to put together a convention program that attempts to highlight his strengths and sideline some of the major absences," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean in an interview with FoxNews.com.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has yet to endorse Trump, though he will be at the convention – he'll be serving as the chairman during the nominating process.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

7 Residents Of Alaska Town Get Full Dose Of Governmental Abuse

SWAT-Style EPA Raid In Alaska Shines A Light On Federal Agencies With Arrest Power

September 17, 2013 by Ben Bullard

PHOTOS.COM

After EPA agents in tactical gear swarmed a mining operation in the tiny Alaskan outpost of Chicken last week, the State’s governor blasted the Feds, calling the raid an “absolutely unacceptable” example of government resorting to intimidation tactics to enforce something as nonviolent an (alleged) offense as the Clean Water Act.

Now, a new analysis of government data reveals the EPA is only one of dozens of Federal agencies that have self-contained armed divisions.

Looking past the DEA, FBI and, since 2002, the DHS, there are about 12,000 full-time Federal officers across 40 agencies who can carry firearms and arrest suspects, according to a Fox News analysis of a Justice Department report. Of those, at least a dozen agencies aren’t concerned at all with law enforcement, but nonetheless retain enforcement officers with guns.

“Though most Americans know agents within the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Prisons carry guns, agencies such as the Library of Congress and Federal Reserve Board employing armed officers might come as a surprise,” the Fox report states:

The number of federal department [sic] with armed personnel climbs to 73 when adding in the 33 offices of inspector general, the government watchdogs for agencies as large as the Postal Service to the Government Printing Office, whose IG has only five full-time officers.

The late-August raid on Chicken, a small gold mining town near the State’s eastern border, involved officers from the EPA, FBI, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Coast Guard, NOAA and the U.S. Park Service. The Federal agents were allegedly acting in concert with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force, but the State’s Congressional delegation, as well as the State police, weren’t buying it.

“Their explanation – that there are concerns within the area of rampant drug trafficking and human trafficking going on – sounds wholly concocted to me,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)… This seems to have been a heavy-handed, and heavy-armor approach. Why was it so confrontational? The EPA really didn’t have any good answers for this.”

Chicken is a tiny place, with nothing resembling a block-grid infrastructure. Lying near the State’s Eastern border with Canada, it has a current population of seven. The only year-round access to the town is via a small local airstrip.

An Alaska State Trooper spokesperson also told the Alaska Dispatch that the State police had not advised the EPA of any “dangerous drug activity” in the area. “We do not have evidence to suggest that is occurring,” said Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters.