Tough Tom Cotton goes wobbly on Russia, hypocritical in China
HYPOCRITE OF THE DAY: Tom Cotton, who censors U.S. press, blasts censorship in China. He also goes soft on Russian interference in U.S. election.
Category Archives: Republican
Time Warner, AT&T Shares Hit After Report Trump Still Against Merger
Shares of both Time Warner and AT&T saw pressure after Bloomberg News reported that President-elect Donald Trump still is opposed to the two companies merging , a view he expressed during the campaign. The report cited unnamed people close to the president-elect.
Questions at the Senate Hearing on Russian Hacking
Senior intelligence officials will testify this morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee about foreign cyberthreats to the U.S. Much of the testimony is likely to focus on what role Russia had in the U.S. election. U.S. intelligence officials say Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and others in an attempt, they say, to influence the U.S. presidential election.
BRIEF-Sevenet gets $490,000 net order for delivery of equipment
WASHINGTON, Jan 5 Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said on Thursday the goal of the intelligence community's review of Russian hacking and any influence on the 2016 U.S. election is not intended to question the result of the November poll.
Senator: Russia’s election meddling should alarm Americans
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday that "every American should be alarmed" by Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and lawmakers pressed intelligence officials about foreign cyberthreats. There is "no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
URGENT – Top intelligence officials reject Trump view on Russia hacks
Lawmakers and senior US intelligence officials are drawing a line in the sand for President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, presenting a united front before Congress on their conclusion that Russia is a major threat to the United States and was behind election hacking -- a conclusion Trump has refused to accept. "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and the Commander of US Cyber Command, Michael Rogers, said in a joint statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.
Rand Paul rallies House Republicans on deficit, could imperil Obamacare repeal
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is set to meet Thursday morning with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus in an effort to heighten concerns about deficit spending -- even as doing so could imperil the Republican effort to immediately repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. Paul was the only Senate Republican to vote against a budget resolution Wednesday that would pave the way for Obamacare's repeal, complaining that it would also raise the deficit.
Top US intelligence officials to testify on Russian hacking
Senior US intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community's The Armed Services Committee's cyber threats hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors -- along with the director of national intelligence -- on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts. Trump has been deeply critical of their findings, even appearing to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.
When It Comes To Russia, So Far Donald Trump Mostly Stands Alone
The Republican Party has embraced President-elect Donald Trump's positions on immigration, trade, the deficit and conflicts of interest, but when it comes to Russia, Trump and his party are not even close to being on the same page. Trump has repeatedly and consistently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin and has refused to accept intelligence community findings that Russia hacked Democratic Party emails during the campaign.
Cruz pushes to move US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
Republican Senator Ted Cruz submitted a bill proposal to the new US Congress on its very first day calling for the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's eternal and undivided capital and to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Texan senator's bill, which was also sponsored by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Nevada Senator Dean Heller, includes an article that suggests Congress would delay the transfer of budgets to the State Department until the move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is done.
Fact Check: Once Again, Lawmakers Are Stretching The Facts On Obamacare
Kesha Wilson holds her 1-year-old son, Kamiyan Cooper, while family nurse practitioner Terrance James makes notes as part of an examination, at a county health center in Portland, Ore., in 2012. President Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence were both on Capitol Hill Wednesday, making competing cases for and against Obama's signature health care law.
Printed Letters: January 5, 2017
Your editorial in Wednesday's paper was a good look at how our House of Representatives can overreach without considering voters, the American public, and their incoming president. I would like to point out that it was those very voters and the public who should also be credited with stopping this misjudged abuse of control.
Don’t Worry: Marijuana Investing in 2017 Will Be Even Better Than 2016
By any measure, 2016 was a great year - a watershed, in fact - for the tech- and pharma-heavy cannabis niche. For instance, ever since Sept.
Artwork Shows Police as Pigs
A piece of artwork displayed at the United States Capitol depicting police officers as pigs is creating controversy from coast to coast. Damian Trujillo reports.
Mad Minute stories for January 4, 2017
Seven-year-old Mackenzie Blankenship loves playing the Nintendo Wii U she got on Christmas Eve from her family, but it's not what she found inside the case on Christmas Day from Santa. Krista Greider, Mackenzie's mother says, "She opened the top and her face just kind of went and she looked and she goes, what is this? and I looked over her shoulder and I grabbed it, saw the picture on it and she was just 'why? what is that? why are they naked?" Greider says instead of the colorful, creative video game -- Mackenzie found Sensual Seductions 2 -- a pornographic film released in 2008.
Repealing Obamacare ‘first order of business’
US President Barack Obama has encouraged fellow Democrats to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law as Republicans moved ahead with their long-sought bid to scrap it in what Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the "first order of business" of Donald Trump's administration. The emerging Democratic strategy is to warn that Republicans risk throwing the entire US healthcare system into chaos by moving to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, without a plan to replace it.
While GOP runs from House ethics flap, Young argues watchdog needsa
In the U.S. House, Republicans started the new year with an awkward lurch. First they proposed to weaken their ethics watchdog.
Obama, Pence harden ‘Obamacare’ battle lines at Capitol
Hardening battle lines for the brawl to come, President Barack Obama urged congressional Democrats to "look out for the American people" in defending his legacy health care overhaul, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence stood firm Wednesday in telling Republicans that dismantling "Obamacare" is No. 1 on Donald Trump's list.  "We're going to be in the promise-keeping business," Pence declared at two separate Capitol news conferences.
GOP House panel: Halt federal money for Planned Parenthood
A Republican-run House panel created to investigate Planned Parenthood and the world of fetal tissue research urged Congress on Wednesday to halt federal payments to the women's health organization. Democrats said the GOP probe had unearthed no wrongdoing and wasted taxpayers' money in an abusive investigation reminiscent of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Editorials from around New York
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on the importance of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics and lawmakers' failed attempt to place it under the oversight of the House Ethics Committee. In 2013, 10 members of Congress, three former aides to President Barack Obama, several spouses, and 32 staff members attended an all-expenses-paid conference in Azerbaijan.