By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTMAY 18, 2015
When the Clintons last occupied the White House, Sidney Blumenthal cast himself in varied roles: speechwriter, in-house intellectual and press corps whisperer. Republicans added another, accusing Mr. Blumenthal of spreading gossip to discredit Republican investigators, and forced him to testify during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
Now, as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview.
Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable.
But an examination by The Times suggests that Mr. Blumenthal’s involvement was more wide-ranging and more complicated than previously known, embodying the blurry lines between business, politics and philanthropy that have enriched and vexed the Clintons and their inner circle for years.
Fall of Ramadi Raises Questions About Obama’s Strategy to Defeat ISIS in Iraq
James Phillips / May 19, 2015
The seizure of the city of Ramadi by the Islamic State (or ISIS) on Sunday was a major setback for the Iraqi government and for the Obama administration.
Although U.S. officials downplayed the significance of the defeat, saying that Ramadi was not “strategic” in a military sense, Ramadi is a very important political symbol because it is the capital of Anbar province, the predominantly Sunni Arab western province that has been a stronghold for the Islamic State and its predecessor organizations, ISIS and al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The panicked retreat of Iraqi police and security forces from Ramadi underscores the continued weakness of the Iraqi army and police. It also raises questions about the viability of the Obama administration’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq.
The fact that the Baghdad government now is considering moving Shiite militias to Ramadi, a predominantly Sunni city, suggests that Iraq’s central government still lacks adequate support from Iraq’s Sunni Arabs to defeat the Islamic State, a Sunni revolutionary movement. This spells trouble for Iraqi and American plans to defeat the Islamic State.
Those plans included the building of an inclusive ruling coalition in Baghdad that would unite Iraq’s Shiite majority with the Kurdish and Sunni Arab minorities, who would contribute militia fighters to aid the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army.
Earlier this month, the first 1,000 Sunni recruits joined a pro-government Sunni tribal militia that is slated to grow to 6,000. But the arming of Sunni militias in Anbar province has been delayedby the opposition of Shiite political leaders who doubt the loyalty of many Sunni Iraqis in an increasingly polarized sectarian atmosphere.
The fall of Ramadi also has weakened Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who became Iraq’s top leader last year with strong backing from the United States.
Abadi, a Shiite political leader who promised to lead a more inclusive government, reached a deal on sharing oil revenues with Iraqi Kurds and pushed for arming Sunni tribesman to fight against the Islamic State. But Abadi’s plans to arm Sunni militias have been trimmed back by rival Shiite leaders backed by Iran, who favor the ruthless employment of Iranian-trained Shiite militias.
Now Iran’s preferred militias are building up in preparation to retake Ramadi. Their presence is likely to further exacerbate sectarian tensions which the Islamic State has exploited to gain support from Iraqi Sunnis fearful of Shiite domination.
A military victory for Iran’s surrogate militias in Ramadi would amount to a political defeat for the United States and for Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi. And such a victory could trigger a Sunni backlash that could boost the Islamic State and prolong, rather than shorten, Iraq’s civil war.
MAY 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY NEIL AMDUR
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD |
THE RECORD
WORLD RECORD
WHO: Brendan Corcoran.
WHAT: Attempting to set a Guinness World Record for completing a 1-mile run in full firefighter gear.
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Monday. (Other events start at 8:15 a.m.)
WHERE: The 40th Annual Fred d’Elia Ridgewood Run, Veterans Memorial Field, Ridgewood; 973-333-4837, ridgewoodrun.com.
Brendan Corcoran has been competitive since he ran his first 10-kilometer race 30 years ago in Ridgewood as a 7-year-old with his Uncle Greg.
Football. Marathons. Triathlons. Ironman Triathlons. Even a pending Guinness World Record for completing a half-marathon wearing full firefighter gear, including boots (1 hour, 48 minutes, 24 seconds).
“I pretty much always have a purpose,” the 37-year-old Ridgewood fire lieutenant says of his intense training commitments, which may have been passed down from his father, who was a captain of the Ridgewood High basketball team.
The Guinness Book of World Records is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, with 40,000 current records in its latest edition and distribution in 100 countries and 20 languages.
Bill Baroni received approval from a federal judge to travel to Dublin, Ireland today through next Tuesday to help pass a marriage equality referendum.
The Bergen Record has the story on the indicted former deputy director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey here. (PolitickerNJ Staff)
Parents and kids brought plenty of passion — pro and con — to this morning’s debate over PARCC legislation.
“Never once did they come home and say, ‘Mommy, it was so hard! Mommy, I didn’t get it!’ They said, ‘Mommy, I rocked that!’ They were so proud of themselves,” said North Star Academy parent Florisha Johnson. (Flanagan/NJTV)
Lawmakers in New Jersey and Oregon are considering bills that would finally give drivers in those states the option to pump their own gas. But why was that practice banned in the first place?
Let’s start with the case in New Jersey. The Garden State’s ban on self-service gas stations, which are allowed in 48 states, began in 1949 when the New Jersey Legislature passed the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act. That law, enacted over concerns about the safety of consumers pumping petroleum themselves, was later followed by many other states. However, almost every state has since overturned their self-serve bans. (Kell/TIME)
MAY 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
TEANECK — Bergen County isn’t exactly horse country. Few here seem to closely follow horse racing, preferring baseball and football to the sight of thoroughbreds tearing up a dirt track at 40 miles per hour.
But this year may be different — in Teaneck, anyway.
That’s because American Pharoah, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes this month, is in a position to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. And the horse’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, an Egyptian-born businessman, has lived in the township for 30 years.
“It’s definitely a lot of buzz locally,” Mayor Lizette Parker said, adding that she has received messages from friends both near and far who have been watching the races, wondering if American Pharoah will be the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed, in 1978.
Around the township on Monday afternoon, many acknowledged that they don’t regularly follow horseracing. But those who know Zayat, who lives with his wife and four children on Warwick Avenue — a wide, quiet street in a section of the township with a large Orthodox Jewish population — said they have been tuning in to the races specifically to root for American Pharoah.
The Zayats’ neighbors described them as social and friendly people who are active in community and school affairs.
Editors Note : No Mr President Camden is not an example of hope , its just another example of policies put in place by the Democrat Party that have totally destroyed a city and an example policies that are totally destroying a country ! Camden , like Detroit and Baltimore is another warning of what not to do ! Camden is the future if we don’t change our ways .
Is the media really going to pretend Camden is anything but a dump , a disastrous failure and a warning?
PBA Prez Colligan to Camden-touring Obama: ‘You are being misled’
In a letter today to the Camden-touring President of the United States, the State Policemen’s Benevolent Association told Barack Obama that he has been misled to believe “PR spin” that the Camden County Metro Police Department is a success in battling violent crime that besets the waterfront south state city. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
MAY 18, 2015, 10:28 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015, 10:31 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Law enforcement officials, alarmed by Islamic State’s sophisticated online recruitment campaigns and by the rising number of young people they’ve caught trying to join the extremist group, are reaching out to warn community leaders and clergy across New Jersey.
“It is a threat to our young people. It is a threat to the future of all of us,” said William Gale, supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Newark Division, in a recent forum in Wayne.
Aside from delivering warnings about the Islamic State’s luring of young people, meetings between law enforcement and Muslims in metro areas around the country are intended to open lines of communication and provoke an exchange of information, federal agents say. Muslims leaders, who have hosted the talks, say the outreach is a sign of cooperation.
But for Muslims whose forebears built local businesses and institutions, emotions provoked by talk of Islamic extremism mingle with a certain wariness that their communities could be stigmatized by the actions of a few. The worry becomes palpable with fresh memories of undercover spying by NYPD on New Jersey mosques and Muslim student groups.
MAY 18, 2015, 4:43 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015, 6:48 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Print
The Bergen County freeholders have identified just over $1 million in cuts they want to make in the $531 million 2015 budget submitted last month by County Executive James Tedesco.
The proposed cuts are spread across several departments. An exact breakdown was not immediately available.
The cuts may be partially offset by an addition to the budget. The freeholders want to increase spending on the Bergen County Cooperative Library System by $125,000.
A formal introduction of the budget is expected expected later this month.
Tedesco proposed a budget that calls for a 1.7 percent increase in county taxes. That would translate into a property tax increase of $12.73 for a home assessed at the county average of $324,000.
Sheriff Michael Saudino told the freeholders that folding the County Police into his department will save the county nearly $2 million through retirements. The freeholder board approved consolidating the two agencies last year after several years of debate.
Prosecutor John Molinelli told the board that he plans to hire seven former County Police officers to fill vacancies for investigators within his office.
The county will save about $730,760, Molinelli said, because money for those salaries is already in his budget. The savings are based on the presumption that the Sheriff will not fill the vacancies in his department left by the departing county police officers.
Molinelli said four of the seven new hires will continue as members of the regional SWAT team, but they will no longer receive an extra stipend for that work.
the Saddle River PoliceSaddle River Police report that on Sunday May 17, 2015 at approximately 9:00 PM a resident from the Oak Road area reported that their small dog had just fought with a coyote and managed to escape. The dog was taken by its owner to an animal hospital for treatment. Officers responded to the area and were unsuccessful in locating the coyote. TYCO Animal Control was notified and is working with the State Division of Wildlife on this incident. The dog is up to date with its vaccinations and is now home recovering with its family.
Due to recent events involving coyotes and other wildlife in the Tri-State area, residents should not leave small animals and or children outside unattended. Residents should also be aware that larger dogs have been targeted and attacked in other jurisdictions.
If your pet is attacked be careful not to touch any saliva left on their fur or hair by a bite from another animal. If the animal is rabid, this saliva could transmit the rabies virus. Wash your hands immediately and thoroughly if they come in contact with saliva from a wild animal. Your pet may also need to be washed if it doesn’t require immediate medical attention.
All pet owners are reminded to keep their animals up to date on their rabies vaccinations.
Keeping vaccinations current will prevent a pet from possibly being subjected to a lengthy quarantine or euthanized if it has an encounter with a rabid animal.
The Health Department reminds everyone to stay clear of all wildlife, especially any that are acting sick or unusually friendly. If you see suspicious acting wildlife please report them immediately to the Saddle River Police Department.
MAY 18, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015, 10:55 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The public hearing on Verizon Wireless’ application to install cellular communications equipment atop the cross at West Side Presbyterian Church will reopen in June, a decision that comes more than a month after the hearing was closed.
A request to return to a public hearing was made at a May 12 Board of Adjustment meeting by Verizon’s attorney, Warren Stilwell, who informed board members he “needed to notice a request of a prior condition.”
“We became aware of a prior resolution of the board that contained a condition that essentially didn’t allow renting the premise to outside entities,” said Stilwell.
The board had previously adopted a resolution for a prior church application that, among other conditions, prohibited it from renting space to others, such as telecom companies, zoning board secretary Tony Merlino told The Ridgewood News.
Merlino said Verizon officials discovered the resolution on Monday.
As a result, Verizon is required to re-advertise its application to include the existing restrictions placed on the church.
Verizon is seeking a use variance, minor site plan approval and other waivers from the zoning board for its project at the church, which calls for the installation of a cellular antenna with stealth screening, which measure roughly 2-feet wide.
If built, the antenna would bring the total church building height to 68.5 feet where 30 feet is allowed by Ridgewood zoning laws. Currently, the building stands at 65.5 feet when measured to the top of the cross.
A use variance is needed for the antenna, which is not permitted in the residentially-zoned church.
It must be said that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) had a not-so-good week there toward the end, waffling on Iraq. “Jell-O,” said The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank (and “afraid of his shadow and nakedly calculating”). “GOP lawmakers flabbergasted,” said The Hill. “Does Jeb Bush even really want to be US president?” asked The Telegraph.
Possibly not. But coincidentally, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney had a very good day on Friday, there in the ring bare-chested — his shirt ripped off him — going mano-a-mano, as Ernest Hemingway liked to say, against the great and good former undisputed world champion Evander Holyfield. And was there ever a better sport than Romney for accepting that challenge?
Holyfield and Romney’s Charity Vision fight may have suddenly jogged a collective shift away from a long, painful conservative brain freeze. Conservatives, said Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R), are experiencing Bush fatigue. But this is the question which will now be quietly, surreptitiously asked, and asked with increased anxiety: If we are finally tiring of Bushes and Clintons and the old irrelevant families, are we not still just getting used to Romney? Does America maybe just need Mitt Romney?
President Obama spoke last week as part of a panel about poverty and opportunity at the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty. He was joined by Robert Putnam, author of “Our Kids,” and AEI President Arthur Brooks. The president spoke at length about his belief that, as a country, we need to invest in those who have not had opportunities. He said (emphasis mine):
A free market is perfectly compatible with us making investment in good public schools, public universities; investments in public parks; investments in a whole bunch — public infrastructure that grows our economy and spreads it around. But that’s, in part, what’s been under attack for the last 30 years. And so, in some ways, rather than soften the edges of the market, we’ve turbocharged it. And we have not been willing, I think, to make some of those common investments so that everybody can play a part in getting opportunity.
Later, the president went further in suggesting that our country’s investments in poor people have declined:
And right now, they [poor kids] don’t have those things [mentors, social networks, decent books and computers and so forth], and those things have been stripped away. You look at state budgets, you look at city budgets, and you look at federal budgets, and we don’t make those same common investments that we used to. And it’s had an impact. And we shouldn’t pretend that somehow we have been making those same investments. We haven’t been. And there’s been a very specific ideological push not to make those investments. That’s where the argument comes in.
It’s difficult to find the areas of disinvestment that the president is referring to. A 2014 report by the Cato Institute analyzed education spending trends by state and found that spending per student for K-12 education increased almost 200% from 1970-2010, in constant dollars.
Spending on poor families has also increased dramatically over the past few decades. The figure above shows spending in constant dollars on the four largest means-tested programs (excluding public health insurance programs). Food and nutrition assistance alone increased 78% since FY2005. And Medicaid spending far overshadows other means-tested programs at $276 billion in FY2014, an increase of 40% since FY2005. As a percent of GDP, federal spending on means-tested programs was 3.5% in FY 2014. It was 2.7% in FY2005 and 2.4% in FY2001, the last recession.
In response to President Obama’s comments, Arthur Brooks, President of AEI, talked about declaring peace on the social safety net and tackling middle-class entitlements, but appropriately argued for limits. He said:
So if you join me in believing the safety net is a fundamental, moral right, and it’s a privilege of our society to provide, you must avoid austerity and you must avoid insolvency. And the only way that you can do that is with smart policies.
And I’m 100 percent sure the president agrees with me about smart macro-economic public policies, so I’m not caricaturing his views either.
Since we believe that there should be public goods, then we’re really talking about the system that provides them and provides them efficiently.
Given what the data show on the substantial public investments that already exist, it seems appropriate to have a conversation on efficiently targeting them rather than discussing how to increase them even more.
Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of the country continues to slip, falling 6 percentage points from early this year, according to a new Gallup poll.
Twenty-six percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, according to Gallup, returning to levels around the end of 2014, before a sharp 9-percentage-point uptick in satisfaction heading into the new year.
In the poll, which parallels a similar drop in economic confidence, Gallup notes, respondents list government, the economy and unemployment as top problems.
During President Obama’s term, satisfaction topped 36 percent in August 2009, but has ranged between 11 percent and 33 percent since then, according to Gallup.
