Rush Limbaugh’s Historic Success

Rush Limbaugh, EIB Network

by Newt Gingrich: Rush Limbaugh is a major factor in American conservatism, the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994, the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and the election of Donald J. Trump as president.

Rush first began working in radio in 1967 and spent various periods over the next two decades gaining experience at local radio stations. On August 1, 1988 Rush hit national air waves for the first time as a talk radio host, and he has been a major force in the national conversation ever since.

Over the years, Callista and I have gotten to know Rush well. I once even had the pleasure of listening to Callista and Rush entertainingly recount their high school experiences working in local radio. They had remarkably similar stories about their teenage experiences in small local radio stations. Obviously, Rush stayed focused on mastering that trade, while Callista went on to the piano, the French horn, becoming chief clerk at the House Committee on Agriculture, and singing professionally in the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Nonetheless it was funny listening to them tell stories about their youthful adventures on air.

Rush is a good example of the importance of paying your dues and earning your trade. It was no accident that he spent 20 years in local radio before finally going national. He learned a lot about his audience, about the strengths and limitations of radio as a medium, and about the kind of folks with whom he wanted to attract, entertain, and form a community.

Rush was a deeply committed conservative, a strong fan of President Ronald Reagan, and a passionate opponent of the Clintons. When President Clinton was elected Rush went all out to explain his failings to the country.

During this period, we got to know each other really well because we had wonderful mutual friends, Gay and Stanley Gaines, who would bring us together for long dinners and hours of passionate conversation. One afternoon my son-in-law, Paul Lubbers, was playing golf with Rush and Stanley and hit a hole in one. Rush's signature made that scorecard even more memorable.

When we went all out in 1994 to win the House with the Contract with America, Rush was our biggest booster. By then he was drawing an audience of 28,000,000 Americans every week. His reach and credibility made him an enormously important ally. With Rush's help, Republicans won the House for the first time in 40 years. Two years later, Rush's championing of our welfare reform bill helped us keep the House for the first time in 68 years--since 1928.

Today, Rush remains one of the most important commentators for conservatives. Only Sean Hannity comes close to matching his reach and the intense loyalty of his audience.

President Trump might not have gotten either the nomination or won the general election without Rush's constant, insightful commentary.

In three short decades, Rush has fundamentally changed the landscape of talk radio. He created an outlet for Americans to hear and discuss the stories the news media refused to cover, long before the rise of the Internet and social media. Rush began his 30th year as host of The Rush Limbaugh Show earlier this week. It is truly a remarkable accomplishment and a reminder of what a true entrepreneur can achieve through vision, guts, and hard work.
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Newt Gingrich is a former Georgia Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House. He co-authored and was the chief architect of the "Contract with America" and a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. He is noted speaker and writer. The above commentary was shared via Gingrich Productions.

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Tags: Newt Gingrich, commentary, Rush Limbaugh, Historic Success To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

I Just Want It Fixed

Pragmatist (Webster's Dictionary): "One who sees a problem and understands it must be fixed." "Skilled in business or law." Donald Trump is a pragmatist. He doesn't see the problems as Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative. He sees them only as problems and understands they must be fixed.

by John Porter, Contributing Author: Please allow me to explain how I feel about President Donald Trump, and I'm sure millions of other Americans agree. I don't like it, but can forgive if the man swears . . . how many times he's been married . . . or who he voted for. I don't care what his income tax return shows . . . it's okay that he tweets his thoughts to us. I want the problems fixed and the drive toward Socialism stopped. Yes he has a big ego, but I don't mind. I know he's not a racist, or bad to women, feeble minded, or all the other things the liberal media is trying to label him with. I know he's raised a good family, and that says a lot about him to me.

Our country is a mess because politicians through the years have made it that way. Many elected leaders of the Republican Party are so two faced & gutless they won't stand up and stem the Socialistic onslaught against our Constitution by the elected leaders of the Democrat Party and their financial backers. People who are in our country illegally are everywhere, and radical Muslims are openly, not only trying to hurt, but destroy this country and make the civilized world adjust to them and their Sharia Law. I want it all fixed!

I can live with Mr. Trump's sometimes crude manner. I don't mind he's not a polished orator. I don't mind that he has changed positions on a few things. I don't care that he fights with the bias news media, and so many of the elected establishment. I don't care that John Kasich, the entire Bush family, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and so many other top old, and new, Republicans refuse to support his efforts as president for their own selfish reasons, and we know what many of them are. I don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslim terrorists. They certainly know his. I don't care that he tried some businesses that didn't work out, even though most and a great many did, and very successfully.

Let's, if only for a fleeting moment, lay all political party leanings aside and think only of the United States of America and be honest with ourselves for once.  We all know this country, especially over the past eight years, has had its military drastically weakened.

We are bankrupt; our enemies were making fun of us; and, our friends doubting us.

We have been invaded by many people who don't have legal permission to be here.

We are being dangerously threatened by North Korea attacking our country with nuclear missiles.

We are becoming a nation of victims, where every far out, over the top hate organization such as MS13 gangs, are special groups with special rights to a point in several Sanctuaries cities are encouraging them to come to their cities. These cities protect them from being arrested for their acts of murder, rape, robbery, so much so where we don't even recognize the country which most of us were born in or legally immigrated to.

AND I JUST WANT IT FIXED. And President Donald Trump seems to be the only guy who understands what the problems are and what the people want!

I am sick of politicians and Democrat and Republican Party leaders in Washington scratching each others backs. I am mad about the Iran deal, the budget, out of control government spending, being over burdened with government regulations, excessive taxation, a complicated tax system, the disastrous Obama healthcare program, mistreatment of Israel, military weakness, lobbyists, special interests, overpaid politicians with their self-serving bills and back room deals, trade deals with foreign countries extremely unfair to us, loss of jobs, businesses fleeing our country.

I just want it fixed!

Most Americans are no longer being fooled.  The Trump movement underway within the people seeks to change the direction our elected leaders of both parties have been taking us.  Mr. Trump certainly is no a saint,  But he doesn't have lobbyist money holding him;  he doesn't have political correctness restraining him; and we all know that he has been a very successful business man, a good negotiator, built a lot of things, created a lot of jobs, is flexible, and not a politician.

And he said in his  campaign that he would fix our Country  and I believed him and helped elect him. I honestly believe he has the well being of America and all her citizens at heart and is trying to do everything he said he would.

It is evident that public service through the years has become tainted with greed.

This 2016 election may have beour last chance to have a non-politician who despite his flaws, tries to correct the mess during the next 4 years. We had to take the shot, because of the probable consequences of having Hillary Clinton in office and her filling the Supreme Court with Socialist judges, continuing Barack Obama's efforts to destroy our sovereignty by pushing us into a one world community, and her selling our beloved nation for cash, These actions were not only frightening, but unacceptable to me.

Mr. Donald Trump, a non politician, is now leading a tidal wave of the American people, non politicians, which I believe can overcome much of what's happened to this country and prevent further decay caused by politicians in an overbearing Federal Government. You and I, all of us, need to be helping instead of hindering the President in his efforts. He is doing it for us.

Ask yourself, “what is he doing or trying to do, policy wise, that I don't like?” List them on paper. Now, is it what he is doing or is it just that you don't like him.  If the latter, what difference could that make?

WE MUST SUPPORT AND GIVE THIS, YES IMPERFECT, MAN A CHANCE AS OUR PRESIDENT TO FIX THE THINGS WRONG IN WASHINGTON D.C.

WE MUST STOP ALL THIS RIDICULE AND BASHING AND CRITICIZING EVERY MOVE HE MAKES AND EVERY WORD HE SPEAKS.

OR, OUR BEING A NATION OF FREE INDIVIDUALS AND A BEACON OF HOPE TO THE NOT SO FREE NATIONS OF THE WORLD WILL BE LOST FOREVER.

HE SAID HE WOULD FIX IT AND HE'S TRYING TO DO JUST THAT.

Until next time... forward to all you can, please get involved. President Trump needs our help!
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John Porter is an Americans first, constitutional conservatives second. His allegiance is to the Constitution. He seeks to help save America from the grips of socialism and an all powerful, intrusive government, and from the evil of Islam. He is a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.

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Leave and Learn: Senate Heads Home to Regroup

by Tony Perkins: The Senate only had one working day left -- and they made the most of it. After months of sandbagging President Trump's nominees, Democrats finally agreed to cooperate on an up-or-down vote for dozens of appointees. "Democrats made it their goal in life to obstruct everything that we tried to do," said a frustrated Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas). And they proved it, suddenly agreeing to move every appointee by voice vote -- meaning they had no objections.

Their sudden spirit of cooperation was part of the deal Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck in exchange for turning out the lights on an unusually long summer session. The trade turned out to be a good one for Republicans, who cranked through more than 60 appointees -- most for key administration posts that have sat empty for the better part of six months. Like other agencies, the State Department had been in a holding pattern while Democrats stalled on a number of important hires -- including a full slate of ambassadors. Now, in a step forward, HR directors from the CIA to FCC will be busily adding new staff to the government directory.

For McConnell, who'd hoped to go home with a major legislative victory under his belt by repealing Obamacare, Thursday's progress helped eased the sting. "The Senate has confirmed more Executive Branch nominees this week than all of the Executive Branch nominees confirmed this year combined," he pointed out. "This was an important step towards filling critical roles throughout the administration, including the deputies at multiple cabinet offices who had been lacking these key positions. Moving forward, I hope this agreement represents the way forward on confirming nominees so our government can be fully staffed and working for the American people."

While Republicans filled a number of jobs, they leave town wondering about their own. Back on their home turf, few will be eager to face voters and explain what happened on the repeal. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who voted to keep Obamacare, will have more than her share of explaining to do in a state where premiums are 203 percent higher since 2013. After she helped sink the bill that would have delivered on seven years of GOP promises, Murkowski desperately tried to turn the page on her role in July's disappointment. "I think we can spend time thinking about what didn't happen," she told reporters. "[But] I don't have enough hours in my day to do that. I'm just focused on what we're going to be doing going forward."

Georgia's David Perdue (R) knew who to blame -- but insists the debate is far from over. "We had three chairmen who went rogue on the Republican caucus and cost us this vote," he said. "That's a problem. We spent a lot of energy on that. And we're not done yet." Before members fanned out across the country, Senator Dean Heller (R-Nev.) -- who was a longtime health care holdout -- hinted at the growing support for a new replacement plan from Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.). That effort will largely be on hold until September 5, when the Senate reconvenes.

Until then, Republicans will have a chance to clear their heads before an even crazier Fall of debt ceiling deadlines, budget debates, tax reform, fiscal year-end budgets, and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). With so much on the line, McConnell knows his party has plenty of opportunities to redeem itself. As far as Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is concerned, it's not a matter of the Senate dragging its feet. After all, Republicans just delivered on a fifth federal judge -- officially putting Trump on a faster pace than Presidents Obama or George Bush. By a 66-31 vote (which included 16 Democrats' support), Alabama's Kevin Newsom was confirmed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That's just one of the reasons Senator Scott believes the chamber "has had one of the busier legislative years. We just haven't had a successful year as it relates to the large items." Those "large items" will still be waiting when the Senate reconvenes after Labor Day. After a mixed report card, McConnell knows there's plenty of time on the clock. "Last time I looked, Congress goes on for two years," he said to critics who warned the GOP's majority was in jeopardy. For their sake -- and America's -- let's hope they make the most of what's left.
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Tony Perkins is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on Tony Perkin's Washington Update an written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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Tags: Tony Perkins, Family Research Center, FRC, Family Research Council,  confirmed, Federal Judge, Kevin Newsom, Leave and Learn, Senate, Heads Home, to Regroup To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Mueller Goes Nuclear, Trump's Terrific Speech, Plugging Leaks, Making Progress

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:  Mueller Goes Nuclear -  News broke late yesterday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington, D.C. Subpoenas related to last year's meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer have reportedly been issued.

Grand jury investigations are supposed to be secret, so this news was obviously leaked by someone on Mueller's staff or in the Justice Department in order to damage the president.

The president's legal team says this is simply part of the normal process and in no way suggests that the president is under investigation.

Here's my take: Half of the lawyers on Mueller's team are Democrat donors. His grand jury sits in Washington, D.C., a city that voted 91% for Hillary Clinton on Election Day. This is the jury that is now going to sit in judgment of President Trump and his family.

What's not to like? [SARCASM ALERT!]

Trump's Terrific Speech -  President Trump shrugged off the latest development in the Russia investigation and delivered a terrific speech last night in Huntington, West Virginia. He had two great themes in his remarks. The first was a tremendous pro-American vision. The second was an aggressive indictment of the left for its lack of a serious agenda.

The president began with a bold defense of our American values, saying:

"The change you voted for is happening every single day. Everyone in this great arena is united by shared values. We believe in God. We believe in family. We believe in country.

"We support the Constitution of the United States of America. We cherish and defend the Second Amendment. We believe schools should teach students to love our country, to have pride in our history and to respect our great American flag.

"We stand with the incredible men and women of law enforcement. Thank you! We believe strongly that a nation must defend and protect its borders. And above all else, we believe that we must take care of our own citizens and put America first!"Watch it here.

About the left, Trump said this:

"The reason why Democrats only talk about the totally made up Russia story is because they have no message, no agenda and no vision. They don't talk about the all-time-high stock market. They don't talk about reforms to the VA or about manufacturing jobs we're bringing back to America. . . They don't talk about the Keystone pipeline . . . or the Dakota Access pipeline.

"The Russia story is a total fabrication. It is just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of American politics. . . What the prosecutor should be looking at are Hillary Clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. . .

"We didn't win because of Russia. We won because of you. . . We won because millions of patriotic Americans voted to take back their country. . .

"They are trying to cheat you out of the future that you want. They are trying to cheat you out of the leadership that you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and, most importantly, demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution."
President Trump is absolutely right.

Elite Disdain - While West Virginians were cheering, the Washington swamp was reacting. If you needed another example of the elite's disdain for Main Street, you got it last night around 7:50.

As President Trump was making the case for the RAISE Act, an immigration reform plan that requires new immigrants to speak English and be financially self-sufficient, Stuart Rothenberg tweeted this: "Lots of people in West Virginia can't support themselves or speak English."

Rothenberg is a highly respected member of Washington's political elite. But his condescending tweet demonstrated just how little respect D.C.'s political class has for millions of hard working Americans.

Another Victory -  There was a major announcement during last night's rally. The GOP won another "special election" -- one we didn't realize was taking place in the mind of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (D). The governor told the audience:

"Let me just say this to you as bluntly as I can say it. . . the Democrats walked away from me. . . Today I tell you as West Virginians, I can't help you anymore being a Democrat governor. So tomorrow, I will be changing my registration to Republican."

With this party switch, Republicans now have complete control of 26 states, while Democrats control only six.

Plugging Leaks -  Yet another disturbing leak appeared yesterday courtesy of the Washington Post. Somehow the left-wing media outlet got its hands on the full transcripts of President Trump's phone calls with two foreign leaders. Rather than consider the implications for national security and foreign policy, the Post published the transcripts.

Whatever the Washington Post thinks of Donald Trump, publishing those transcripts was an utter betrayal of the presidency. No president should fear that his private conversations with foreign leaders will end up on the front page.

But perhaps the Post did us a favor. This leak elicited outrage across the political spectrum.

This morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats held a joint press conference. They announced that the administration has tripled the number of probes intended to end "the culture of leaks." Four individuals have been charged, and Sessions warned that reporters may be subpoenaed as these investigations go forward.

Speaking on Fox & Friends this morning, Kellyanne Conway said that lie detector tests may be used to vet White House aides. My advice: Do it now!

Making Progress - Last night, before they left town for the August recess, senators confirmed nearly 70 of President Trump's nominees.

Some of the confirmations involved ambassadorial appointments, which do not directly impact the battles here in Washington. But many were for sub-Cabinet level posts, meaning the president is finally starting to get the people he needs to rein in the bureaucracy.

I am also pleased to report that more progress is being made in moving the president's judicial nominees as well.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Mueller Goes Nuclear, Trump's Terrific Speech, Plugging Leaks, Making Progress To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Why Do Republicans Want To Kill Horses?

An unpalatable and indefensible initiative that cannot end well.

by David Horowitz, Contributing Author: Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives recently took the politically questionable – and morally objectionable – step of voting to allow horses to once again be slaughtered on American soil for human consumption.

It’s a massive power grab by the beef lobby, which would prefer to cull wild horses and burros so public lands can be devoted to livestock-grazing. No one else will rejoice in the heartland at the prospect of being able to chow down on a horse steak or a horse-burger. Most Americans are opposed to hippophagy, the eating of horse flesh. To many Americans in both major political parties, the issue of equine slaughter is on a par with clubbing baby harp seals to death or killing dolphins. And it should be. Horses are companion animals, just like dogs and cats. The horse is the unique symbol of the West and of Americans’ pioneering spirit. Republican celebrities like actress Bo Derek are outspoken opponents of killing horses for food. Republican lawmakers should be too.

So why now - with the Republican agenda faltering in Congress and the Trump White House under siege - is the GOP formulating new ways to alienate voters and play to their caricature as heartless servants of big business? Why are Republicans hell-bent on resurrecting an ugly, morally reprehensible practice that would put Misty of Chincoteague and Mister Ed back on the dinner table?

Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee recently approved reversing a de facto ban on slaughtering horses at meat-processing plants. Under current federal law, wild horses enjoy some legal protection; slaughtering healthy wild horses is forbidden. Several states outlaw the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Among them are California, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Texas.

On July 12, a Democrat amendment to H.R.3268, which funds USDA operations for federal fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1, was defeated in the House Appropriations Committee on a 27 to 25 vote. If that vote is not reversed, the spending measure would end the current ban on horse slaughter that was renewed in a huge spending bill President Trump signed into law in May.

On July 18 the same committee decided on a voice vote to approve an amendment offered by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) that deleted language from the Department of the Interior’s annual appropriations bill “that would have prohibited ‘the destruction of healthy, unadopted wild horses and burros in the care of’” the BLM and its contractors.

Stewart framed his amendment in humanitarian terms. “The bottom line is this: these horses are starving. They’re destroying the range. They’re crowding out the deer and the elk because we cannot manage them.”

But this is a red herring. If this were truly the problem, there are humane and relatively inexpensive ways to thin the herd like sterilization. The beef producers which are the main lobby for this legislation are apparently fine with their cattle “destroying the range” because they profit from it. Protect the Harvest is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit founded, funded, and run by cattleman and energy magnate Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil Products Inc. and a driving force behind the new horse slaughter legislation. “Lucas has gone to great lengths to bring horse slaughter back,” according to conservative Marty Irby, who heads the equine campaign of the Humane Society of the United States, an advocacy group conservatives like Rush Limbaugh support.

Protect the Harvest produced a gut-wrenching short film in 2014 that supports the view that equines are suffering and dying horrible deaths because federal lands can’t support them. In the video titled "Horses in Crisis," rancher Mike Stremler, who serves on the board of directors of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association, criticizes pro-horse activists. The idea is to shock YouTube viewers into agreeing with Lucas’s activist group that killing horses and eating them is actually humane. It’s a classic propaganda technique to show something everyone agrees is horrifying and then point conveniently in the direction of a favored cure.

In the clip, Stremler says: “I think the activists should come out when these horses are starving to death and when that horse gets to the point where it tips over and it lays there, for usually over 24 hours, the ravens come by and they pick out the eye that's up, and then it takes about another 12 hours for that horse to die. Everything that is alive at some point is going to die. But do we want to starve things to death? I know I don't. I'd rather see things managed properly.”

Although Stremler may be rightly distressed – as all Americans should be – at horses starving to death, it does not logically follow that slaughtering these creatures is a worthy solution to the problem of equine overpopulation. Are wild horses really starving because they are devouring all the available food on public lands, or is it because the government is mismanaging them? Conservatives should remember economist Milton Friedman’s famous words: "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."

Horses cannot be slaughtered as easily as other animals like cattle because their behavior and anatomical features get in the way. This can make equine slaughter more closely resemble torture instead of civilized animal husbandry. The penetrative captive-bolt pistols that dispatch cattle efficiently by driving a 4-inch metal rod roughly the circumference of a roll of quarters into the animal’s brain, don’t work well on horses because their skulls are different from those of bovines. This can prolong the agony the horse experiences in its final minutes. “Workers sometimes need to shoot three or four times before the horse stops moving. The horse is then dumped out a side door and strung up by its feet, at which point workers slit its throat and drain the blood.”

Horses often fight with each other on the way to slaughter and it doesn’t help that they are kept in cramped quarters, something to which they’re not accustomed. “Horses also tend to be more excitable than cows—hence the blinders—and the smell of blood makes them nervous. Like other ‘flight animals,’ when they're scared, they try to run.” And getting the terrified horses to hold still in the “kill room” can be difficult. “Horses don't like things near their heads, so when a worker reaches over the railing with a bolt gun, they often swing their heads around, causing the gun to fire in the wrong place.”

While the humanitarian argument against horse slaughter may be sufficiently compelling, it can never be emphasized enough that there is no real constituency for horse slaughter in the U.S. outside a narrow band of ranchers and beef farmers. Armed with a new public opinion poll, the American Wild Horse Campaign reports that “an overwhelming 80 percent of Americans, including 86 percent of 2016 Trump voters and 77 percent of Clinton voters, want Congress to keep anti-slaughter protections in place.”

The poll of 556 registered voters was conducted in July by Democrat-friendly Public Policy Polling (PPP) of Raleigh, N.C.

“The American people have spoken, and they are resoundingly opposed to killing off America’s iconic mustangs,” says Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign. “These animals are a living link to this country's frontier history, and there are many cost-effective and humane ways to manage these herds that don’t result in their indiscriminate killing.”

The ban on equine slaughter has been in effect on and off for more than a decade and other legislation has been enacted to protect horses, both wild and domesticated. Because it is unlawful to sell, serve, or distribute meat that hasn’t passed USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) inspection, slaughter opponents have enforced the prohibition every fiscal year by tacking on legislative “riders” denying the USDA funding to provide inspectors to oversee the butchering of horses. There are reportedly no horse abattoirs in operation in the United States.

President Trump's budgetary blueprint for 2018, unveiled in May, proposed using “humane euthanasia and unrestricted sale of certain excess animals.” According to one analysis, the Trump proposal “could lead to sales of wild horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico or Canada, as well as to the culling of herds, to address what the [Bureau of Land Management] calls an ‘unsustainable’ situation.”

The BLM reportedly spends around $50 million annually for the upkeep and feeding of more than 46,000 wild horses and burros in taxpayer-funded corrals. “Another 73,000 of the animals roam freely across the western states, producing foals and grazing on public lands that conservationists and federal officials say are quickly deteriorating.”

The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program has quadrupled in size since 2000, rising from $20.4 million to $80.4 million in 2017. But it’s not working. In fact, there are few examples of government mismanagement quite as egregious as the BLM’s handling of the program. Under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, BLM is tasked with protecting the wild horses and burros of 10 western states and with preventing overpopulation. To do this, for years BLM has been rounding up and removing horses and burros from the wild -- sending them to holding facilities where most remain for the rest of their lives, despite repeated admonitions from Congress and scientific advisory panels that this was a very bad idea. The program was certain to end up costing them a lot of money -- and would do nothing to lower population numbers on the range.

In 2007, the BLM got very close to achieving appropriate population levels. In what can only be described as a textbook example of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory, BLM declined to take advantage of a manageable population level and shift resources towards managing horses and burros on the range by controlling fertility. Instead, they did nothing. Predictably, the horses and burros on the range bred again, and again, and the population once again soared.

And now, to fix the problem past administrations created -- the BLM has requested the authority to slaughter up to 90,000 wild horses and burros.

This country was built on the backs of horses -- and they don’t deserve to be slaughtered because the BLM has bungled the job of managing them. If they are in fact slaughtered, it will cost millions of dollars to round them up, and they will just reproduce again. Once again, the government will spend a lot of money not solving a problem.

And unfortunately, if the proposal to slaughter horses and burros moves forward -- history will remember this administration as the one that failed the wild horses -- and past administrative failures will be forgotten.

There is a solution. It is elegant, humane, and in the end, less costly. Scrap the current program, prioritize our herd management areas and begin a comprehensive fertility-control program for each herd. Within a decade, the herds will stabilize. It’s time to start innovating with programs that promise long-term program health and respect for both wild horses and taxpayers.

Unfortunately, our Republican government isn’t pursuing this equine-management strategy. Instead of looking to a more politically prudent option like birth control measures – which can be relatively inexpensive – to reduce the horse population, the 2018 Trump budget assumes savings to taxpayers of $10 million per year through the sale of animals and by downsizing roundup and birth-control treatment for horses. In other words, Republicans are being pennywise and pound foolish, and also cruel and inhumane.

The Trump administration also appears to have ignored the 2013 report by the National Academy of Sciences, “Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward.” The Report concludes that BLM’s “Wild Horse and Burro Program has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate the population sizes of horses and burros, to model the effects of management actions on the animals, or to assess the availability and use of forage on rangelands." As a remedy, the report urges the use of fertility-control methods to limit population growth.

Horse slaughter is not only cruel it’s politically stupid. After the July 12 ban-lifting vote, there was immediate blowback against the heartless, inhumane Republicans. After the motion to continue the ban in the USDA spending bill failed, senior Democrats on the committee, Nita Lowey (N.Y.) and Sanford Bishop (Ga.), issued a statement: “We deeply regret the Committee's failure to adopt Rep. [Louise] Roybal-Allard's [D-Calif.] amendment to prohibit the inspection of horses for slaughter for human food. There are far better and more humane ways to deal with unwanted horses, and the past experience in this country of slaughtering horses for human food was, frankly, a disaster.”

The Congressional Animal Protection Caucus boasts 127 members in the 435-member House of Representatives, largely leftist Democrats, but that figure is inflated. The list of CAPC members on Blumenauer’s congressional website hasn’t been updated in a while. “Members” Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) no longer serve in Congress. Also on the list are non-voting House delegates Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).

There are around a dozen Republican members of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, including co-chairman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Peter King (R-N.Y.), Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), and Walter Jones Jr. (R-N.C.). So CAPC is not an insignificant force in Congress.

A business “investing in horse slaughter is like someone opening a dog meat restaurant or a cockfighting arena,” blogged Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society “The mere presence of it would stir the public to act and cause lawmakers and advocates to work to shut down such an operation with speed and authority. We don’t round up dogs and cats for slaughter, and it should be unthinkable to do that to a species that helped us settle the nation. Our humane position is grounded on the notion that people who breed and own horses should act responsibly and provide lifetime care or transfer horses to someone who can.”

A side effect of lifting the ban on horse slaughter would be to place a bounty the head of every unwanted domesticated horse as well. The going price for a horse sold to slaughter ranges from $600 to $1000 – a powerful incentive to kill horses for owners who have fallen on hard times.

The Humane Society’s Martin Irby says he hopes GOP lawmakers “who profess to be fiscal conservatives” will begin to practice what they preach. “As a lifelong Republican,” Irby added, “I’m deeply saddened and quite ashamed to see my fellow conservatives go to such great lengths to promote the slaughter of American equines.”

This politically tone-deaf move by Republicans to lift a justly popular ban on horse-killing makes them water-carriers for inhumane legislation promoted by a special interest seeking to benefit itself at the expense of a noble creature and an American heritage.

Given horses’ long history in this country and the reverence in which they are held by Americans, Republicans should halt this destructive campaign and come up with a solution to equine overpopulation that doesn’t involve slaughtering these wonderful creatures for food.
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David Horowitz is founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (formerly the Center for the Study of Popular Culture), FrontPage Mag, and author of many books and pamphlets published over the last twenty years. Horowitz was a left-minded radical who transitioned over his life into a conservative. Yet despite the effort of the left "to deprecate and diminish him, Horowitz has succeeded in his main task of exposing the left's agenda and decoding the way it seeks to control American culture and politics." (The Life and Work of David Horowitz) He is a Contributing Author of the ARRA News Service and also shared article on Breitbart.com.

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Tags: David Horowitz, Freedom Center, FrontPage Mag, Republicans, unpalatable and indefensible initiative, Killing, Horses To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Hill Urges Trump Administration to Address Ongoing Crisis in Venezuela

Venezuela Crisis

ARRA News Service:  U.S. Representative French Hill sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and Interim Permanent Representative at the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS) Kevin Sullivan, calling for immediate action regarding the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. He issued the following statement:

“Right now, Venezuela faces the worst economic, political, and human rights situation in its country’s history. President Nicolás Maduro's government has been violently clashing with protesters for weeks, underscoring Sunday’s dramatic vote by eight million Venezuelans to create a constitutional assembly. For too long, the United States has abdicated its role in the region, standing by as a witness to the current crisis in Venezuela. Now is the time for the United States to reengage with the countries in our own backyard, and not sit idly by as Venezuela falls into further chaos.”

The letter was also sent to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and Interim Permanent Representative at the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS) Kevin Sullivan.

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Rep. French Hill represent Arkansas Second Congressional District. He serves on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional service, Mr. Hill was actively engaged in the Arkansas business community for two decades as a commercial banker and investment manager. He was founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., which was headquartered in Little Rock and recently merged with Arkansas-based Simmons First National Corp

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Tags: US Rep, French Hill, letter to President, urges, Trump Administration, address, ongoing crisi, Venezuela To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Mueller's Grand Jury Is Significant

. . . The Russian election interference investigation has now become a criminal investigation.

by Thomas Gallatin: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington, a significant move in his investigation into Russia’s election interference. As Andrew McCarthy of National Review writes, “The most significant conclusion we can draw … is that the so-called Russia investigation, officially, is a criminal investigation.” So, what does and doesn’t this mean? Well, McCarthy explains, “That makes it categorically different from a counterintelligence investigation,” which is how Mueller’s probe began.

Somebody on Mueller’s staff has already leaked to the Demo/MSM that subpoenas have been issued in connection with the Don Trump Jr. meeting with a Russian lawyer last year.

Impaneling a grand jury doesn’t necessarily mean that a crime has been committed, nor does it mean that the filing of criminal charges is imminent. It does, however, imply that the investigation is growing in both scope and scale, and it indicates that Mueller has determined there is enough cause to warrant access to subpoena powers afforded by a grand jury. As The Wall Street Journal describes it, “Grand juries are investigative tools that allow prosecutors to subpoena documents, put witnesses under oath and seek indictments, if there is evidence of a crime. Legal experts said Mr. Mueller’s decision suggests he believes he will need to subpoena records and take testimony from witnesses.”

The public knows neither which individual or individuals are the target(s) of this now-criminal investigation, nor the alleged crime – at least until Mueller’s staff leak that to the press.

However, none of this bodes well for Donald Trump. As we’ve noted before, the fact that at least eight members of Mueller’s investigators have contributed to the presidential campaigns of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, which certainly give the appearance that this is anything but an anti-Trump crusade. As Washington insider Gary Bauer notes, “Half of the lawyers on Mueller’s team are Democrat donors. His grand jury sits in Washington, D.C., a city that voted 91% for Hillary Clinton on Election Day. This is the jury that is now going to sit in judgment of President Trump and his family.”
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Thomas Gallatin is the features editor at The Patriot Post.

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Tags: Robert Mueller, Grand Jury, Donald Trump, Russia, Significant,  Thoams Gallatin, The Patriot Post, editorial cartoon, Michael Ramirez To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Ew That Smell . . .

. . . When Chris Matthews said he got a whiff of Fascism from Trump, it was more likely coming from the left.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: editorial cartoon, AF Branco, Ew That Smell, Chris Matthews, whiff of facism, from teh left To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Jeff Sessions is right about the gang threat

Atty General Jeff Sessions with El Salvador
Civil Police director Howard Cotto during visit
to San Salvador, El Salvador, July 28, 2017.

by Roger F. Noriega: Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions traveled to El Salvador as part of the Trump administration’s initiative to combat the growing threat of gangs afflicting both the United States and Latin America. At the center of the administration’s focus is MS-13, the largest of the Central American gangs with over 40,000 members around the world and a significant presence in the United States.

A recent AEI report on transnational organized crime offers an in-depth look at MS-13 as well as practical policy recommendations for the US to combat this dangerous threat. The report explains that, in the Northern Triangle region of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, ruthless gangs like MS-13 have destabilized governments and communities through the spread of brutal violence, extortion, and corruption. They are also behind the region’s increasing homicide rates, now some of the highest in the world.

Between expenditures on security and lost economic activity, the cost of the gang menace to these countries is staggering, siphoning as much as 16% of GDP in El Salvador while much of the population lives in poverty.

This is not just a problem for Central America. MS-13 has a strong foothold in the United States and its gang members are responsible for murders, extortion rackets, and human trafficking operations in American cities from Los Angeles to New York. Furthermore, these violent gangs are a primary motivator for Central Americans to flee the region and illegally immigrate into the United States.

There are also worrying developments in the way MS-13 seeks to evolve into a more sophisticated criminal group. The AEI report finds that while MS-13 does not have the same level of cohesion or organization as Mexico’s cartels or South America’s drug trafficking groups, its leaders are actively seeking to change that by expanding into new criminal activities and spheres of influence such as the drug trade and even politics.

According to the report, “gangs have taken clear steps indicating a purposeful transformation of their structure and activities. MS-13 in particular has worked to codify a chain of command, consolidate territorial control, and integrate itself into regional cocaine transportation structures in new and lucrative ways.”

In a speech to a group of Latin American law enforcement officers, Sessions acknowledged the importance of international cooperation saying, “Partnerships between our law enforcement agencies are increasingly important because the threats we face have been growing.”

He’s right. Central America cannot successfully face this threat alone, and the US cannot overcome MS-13 and the problems it creates by ignoring what is happening in the Northern Triangle. Strong US leadership and engagement is needed in order to rid both the United States and Northern Triangle of the MS-13 scourge.
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Roger F. Noriega is a former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs (Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean) and a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. He coordinates American Enterprise Institute's program on Latin America.

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Tags: Foreign and Defense Policy, Latin America, Jeff Sessions, gang threat, MS-13, AEI, Ambassador, Roger F. Noriega, American Enterprise Institute To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Christian Services on Strike?

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: What if Christians and Christian institutions that provide so many social services went on strike? That is a question Addison Del Mastro asks in The American Conservative. He reminds us of the book by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. She poses the question of what would happen if entrepreneurs in America decided to go on strike because of an increasingly overbearing regulatory state. The book documents the dystopia the country falls into.

While I doubt that Christians and Christian groups would ever go on strike, it is a great thought experiment. Addison Del Mastro explains that, “Many of the services Americans take for granted are provided by churches and Christian organizations.”

One example is health care. John Stonestreet, in his Breakpoint commentary, wrote, “No Christianity, No Hospitals: Don’t Take Christian Contributions for Granted.” Catholic, Baptist, Methodist hospitals can be found all over this country. He documented that in at least 30 communities, the Catholic hospital is the ONLY hospital within a 35-mile radius.

Education is another area where Christian involvement has been key. Christians run thousands of private schools that usually meet or exceed the quality of the public schools. The Catholic Church or various Protestant denominations or churches run more than seven in ten of the private schools in America.

Churches also minister to the needy and marginalized in society. There are soup kitchens and outreaches to the poor and homeless. Churches also provide meals for the home bound. They provide marriage counseling as well as psychological counseling. Christian organizations place children in foster care and adoption. Christian groups run pregnancy resource centers.

Christians aren’t going on strike. But if they did, America would be a very different place indeed.
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Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service

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Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Christian Services, Strike To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Is Trump’s Russia Policy Being Hijacked?

by Patrick Buchanan: In crafting the platform in Cleveland on which Donald Trump would run, America Firsters inflicted a major defeat on the War Party.

The platform committee rejected a plank to pull us deeper into Ukraine, by successfully opposing new U.S. arms transfers to Kiev.

Improved relations with Russia were what candidate Trump had promised, and what Americans would vote for in November.

Yet, this week, The Wall Street Journal reports:

“The U.S. Pentagon and State Department have devised plans to supply Ukraine with antitank missiles and other weaponry and are seeking White House approval … as Kiev battles Russia-backed separatists … Defense Secretary Mattis has endorsed the plan.”

As pro-Russia rebels in East Ukraine have armored vehicles, Kiev wants U.S. tank-killing Javelin missiles, as well as antiaircraft weapons.

State and Defense want Trump to send the lethal weapons.

This is a formula for a renewed war, with far higher casualties in Ukraine than the 10,000 dead already suffered on both sides.

And it is a war Vladimir Putin will not likely allow Kiev to win.

If Ukraine’s army, bolstered by U.S. weaponry, re-engages in the east, it could face a Moscow-backed counterattack and be routed, and the Russian army could take permanent control of the Donbass.

Indeed, if Trump approves this State-Defense escalation plan, we could be looking at a rerun of the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008.

Then, to recapture its lost province of South Ossetia, which had seceded in 1992, after Georgia seceded from Russia, Georgia invaded.

Putin sent his army in, threw the Georgians out, and recognized South Ossetia, as John McCain impotently declaimed, “We are all Georgians now!”

Wisely, George W. Bush ignored McCain and did nothing.

But about this new arms deal questions arise.

As the rebels have no aircraft, whose planes are the U.S. antiaircraft missiles to shoot down? And if the Russian army just over the border can enter and crush the Ukrainian army, why would we want to restart a civil war, the only certain result of which is more dead Ukrainians on both sides?

The Journal’s answer: Our goal is to bleed Russia.

“The point of lethal aid is to raise the price Mr. Putin pays for his imperialism until he withdraws or agrees to peace. … The Russians don’t want dead soldiers arriving home before next year’s presidential election.”

Also going neocon is Mike Pence. In Georgia this week, noting that Russian tanks are still in South Ossetia, the vice president not only declared, “We stand with you,” he told Georgians the U.S. stands by its 2008 commitment to bring them into NATO.

This would mean, under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, that in a future Russia-Georgia clash the U.S. could find itself in a shooting war with Russia in the South Caucasus.

Russia’s security interests there seem clear. What are ours?

Along with Trump’s signing of the new sanctions bill imposed by Congress, which strips him of his authority to lift those sanctions without Hill approval, these developments raise larger questions.

Is President Trump losing control of Russia policy? Has he capitulated to the neocons? These are not academic questions. For consider the architect of the new arms package, Kurt Volker, the new U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations.

A former CIA agent, member of the National Security Counsel, and envoy to NATO, Volker believes Russian troops in Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk are all there illegally — and U.S. policy should be to push them out.

A former staffer of Sen. McCain, Volker was, until July, executive director of the neocon McCain Institute. He has called for the imposition of personal sanctions on Putin and his family and European travel restrictions on the Russian president.

In the Journal this week, “officials” described his strategy:

“Volker believes … that a change in Ukraine can be brought only by raising the costs for Moscow for continued intervention in Ukraine. In public comments, he has played down the notion that supplying weapons to Ukraine would escalate the conflict with Russia.”

In short, Volker believes giving antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Ukraine will bring Putin to the negotiating table, as he fears the prospect of dead Russian soldiers coming home in caskets before his 2018 election.

As for concerns that Putin might send his army into Ukraine, such worries are unwarranted.

Volker envisions a deepening U.S. involvement in a Ukrainian civil war that can bleed and break Russia’s Ukrainian allies and convince Putin to back down and accept what we regard as a just settlement.

Does Trump believe this? Does Trump believe that confronting Putin with rising casualties among his army and allies in Ukraine is the way to force the Russian president to back down and withdraw from Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, as Nikita Khrushchev did from Cuba in 1962?

What if Putin refuses to back down, and chooses to confront?
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Patrick Buchanan is currently a conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior advisor to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000. He blogs at the Patrick J. Buchanan.

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Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Trump’s Russia Policy, Being Hijacked To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Gatekeeping 2.0

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: There once was opinion hegemony, almost a monopoly. Official gatekeepers kept unwanted ideas — including some of mine, including many I strongly oppose — out of public consideration.

Then came the online media revolution, which switched influence from corporate, academic-approved media outlets to truly new media, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

And now? The counter-revolution.

We saw it obviously in the downgrade and then banning of Milo Yiannopoulis’s Twitter, last year. Since then, new measures surface on a regular basis.

We helots, we commonfolk, must not be allowed actually to affect an election!

Or the hearts and inquiring minds of Americans, Europeans, and others worldwide.

Unless that opinion has received the imprimatur of the Center-Left.

I’ve written about this return of the Gatekeeper mentality before. The latest malefactor is YouTube, which locked Dr. Jordan Peterson out of his account this week* as well as put in place new policies to hobble the social sharing elements of YouTube.**

A week or so earlier, Patreon, an online crowdfunding patronage web service I’ve been thinking about trying out, cancelled independent journalist Lauren Southern’s account. Patreon managers charged that her most recent endeavor might cause “loss of life,” but, tellingly, “showed no evidence or proof, are allowing no appeal and have acted as judge, jury and executioner” — as one concerned netizen not inaccurately summarized.

The company’s CEO calmly explained himself to Dave Rubin on YouTube. Does he convince you?

I catch a whiff of panic.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Dr. Peterson’s account has since been reinstated, no explanation given.

** You can learn all this and more on YouTube itself — so the platform hasn’t been shut down as such. Instead, a new Artificial Intelligence will restrict videos that do not even break YouTube terms of service, removing Likes, Comments, and Search features.
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Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Gatekeeping 2.0 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

The Entire National Security Council Staff Should Be Fired

by Robert Romano: So, apparently, the President’s conversations with foreign leaders, including the President of Mexico and Prime Minister of Australia, were recorded and/or transcribed by National Security Council staff, subsequently classified and then illegally leaked to the Washington Post.

This might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. And not for President Donald Trump, who ultimately makes personnel decisions at the White House, but for those who may have finally, simply gone too far.

For goodness’ sake, the President cannot even have a conversation with leaders in Mexico about the wall or Australia about dumping their refugees into the U.S. without it being leaked by his own staff to sabotage the administration’s policies on immigration and refugees.

There is a clear pattern. The leaks are all in the direction of opposing Trump’s agenda.

Under the Constitution, we have one executive for a reason. That includes the conduct of foreign relations. To the extent that the leaks make it more difficult for the President to discharge his constitutional responsibilities dealing with foreign leaders, they undermine national security.

Other examples include attempts to carry on relations and to ratchet down tensions with Russia. Then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s conversation with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was intercepted in December and then leaked to the Washington Post in January.

Some of the content of Trump’s meeting with Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — including discussion of active global terrorist threats affecting both countries — in the Oval Office was leaked to the Washington Post in May.

Some of the substance of the conversation of Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner with Kislyak during the transition period on Nov. 16, 2016 was leaked to the Washington Post from intercepted communications by U.S. intelligence agencies.

These are all clearly designed to sabotage the President’s attempts at détente with Russia, something he campaigned on in 2016. As if Trump was the first president to ever attempt that. You have to basically ignore Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan — most of the Cold War — who at various intervals, set the stage for first dialogue, establishing direct lines of communication to deescalate the possibility of nuclear exchange, then limiting strategic arms and finally, reducing them. These used to be heralded as diplomatic accomplishments. Now every well-intentioned overture is treated as collusion and treason.

Incidentally, these three issues, Trump’s positions on the wall with Mexico, refugees and Russia were part of what set him apart on foreign policy from the other candidates who ran in 2016. Here’s the key. Taking those positions, Trump won the majority of the Electoral College in November. Trump deserves the chance to pursue those policies under the Constitution. Instead, he is being undermined by his own staff at the White House. This is unacceptable and inexcusable.

That is why Trump must simply fire the National Security Council staff in its entirety and start from scratch. Nobody can be trusted. There’s just no other way to be certain that the leaks will stop.

In addition, it is long overdue that Trump cut all former presidents and their designees out of the loop of classified information under federal rules and by revising Executive Order 13526, something Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning called for in early March, saying “They have no need to know.”

The case for doing so now appears all but irrefutable, particularly after it was revealed by Circa.com’s Sara Carter on August 3 that in late April that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster had granted a continued security clearance to former National Security Advisor Susan Rice — weeks after it was reported by Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake that she was at the heart of the unmasking scandal by the former Obama administration targeting the opposition party during the 2016 election campaign.

Despite the fact that Rice had been fingered in the unmasking scandal weeks earlier, according to Carter, “Trump was not aware of the letter or McMaster’s decision, according to two Senior West Wing officials and an intelligence official, who spoke to Circa on condition that they not be named.”

McMaster cannot keep control of the National Security Council, and Americans for Limited Government’s Manning said that means it’s time for him to go: “The only option President Trump has is to clean house at the National Security Council, starting at the top with General McMaster. The threat posed to the country by the National Security Council leaking requires immediate and swift action.”

This is the part where the American people can hope that perhaps Trump has simply been playing dumb with McMaster, carrying on like he has no clue what’s happening with the leaks or why, and in the meantime has developed a strategy to survive these machinations. Hopefully the gloves are about to come off.
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Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government. His article was first shared on the ALG's NetRight Daily blog.

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Tags: National Security Council, staff should be fired, Robert Romano, Americans for Limited Government To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Jeff Sessions Warns Sanctuary Cities About Missing Out on Help to Fight Crime

AG Jeff Sessions

by Fred Lucas: Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited a reported sexual assault by an illegal immigrant in Portland, Oregon, to explain why the Justice Department will continue cracking down on sanctuary cities that receive federal funds.

If a municipality wants access to its National Public Safety Partnership resources, the Justice Department announced Thursday, the local jurisdiction will have to demonstrate a commitment to cooperating with federal immigration agencies.

The program is aimed at providing federal training assistance to local law enforcement to combat violent crime. The program is designed to enable cities to consult with and receive coordinated training services and other resources from the Justice Department.

“By protecting criminals from immigration enforcement, cities and states with so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies make all of us less safe,” Sessions said. “We saw that just last week, when an illegal alien who had been deported 20 times and was wanted by immigration authorities allegedly sexually assaulted an elderly woman in Portland, a city that refuses to cooperate with immigration enforcement.”

Sessions was referring to reports that Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 65-year-old woman in Portland. Martinez had been deported at least 20 times to Mexico.

The charges against Martinez reportedly include robbery, kidnapping, burglary, and sexual abuse.

Sessions said sanctuary policies are driven by politics, with disregard for the safety of a jurisdiction’s residents when officials don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The attorney general added:
By forcing police to go into more dangerous situations to re-arrest the same criminals, these policies endanger law enforcement officers more than anyone. The Department of Justice is committed to supporting our law enforcement at every level, and that’s why we’re asking ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions to stop making their jobs harder.

By taking simple, commonsense considerations into account, we are encouraging every jurisdiction in this country to cooperate with federal law enforcement. That’s what 80 percent of the American people want them to do, and that will ultimately make all of us safer—especially law enforcement on our streets.The Public Safety Partnership program, announced in June, offers training and technical assistance to help local jurisdictions address violent crime.

The Justice Department initially selected 12 locations: Birmingham; Indianapolis; Memphis; Toledo; Baton Rouge; Buffalo; Cincinnati; Houston; Jackson, Tennessee; Kansas City, Missouri; Lansing, Michigan; and Springfield, Illinois. These are not sanctuary cities.

The Justice Department plans to consider other cities. In letters to officials in Albuquerque; Baltimore; San Bernardino, California; and Stockton, California, the agency asks these questions:

(1) Does your jurisdiction have a statute, rule, regulation, policy, or practice that is designed to ensure that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel have access to any correctional or detention facility in order to meet with an alien (or an individual believed to be an alien) and inquire as to his or her right to be or to remain in the United States?

(2) Does your jurisdiction have a statute, rule, regulation, policy, or practice that is designed to ensure that your correctional and detention facilities provide at least 48 hours advance notice, where possible, to DHS regarding the scheduled release date and time of an alien in the jurisdiction’s custody when DHS requests such notice in order to take custody of the alien?

(3) Does your jurisdiction have a statute, rule, regulation, policy, or practice that is designed to ensure that your correctional and detention facilities will honor a written request from DHS to hold a foreign national for up to 48 hours beyond the scheduled release date, in order to permit DHS to take custody of the foreign national?----------------
Fred Lucas (@FredLucasWH) is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal.

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Tags: IJeff Sessions, warnsm sactuary cities, missing out, on help, fighting crime, Fred Lucas, The Daily signal To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Shouldn't Government Do More With Less?

. . . An excellent question being asked by Arkansas Lt Governor Tim Griffin.

by Lt Gov. Tim Giffin: The Tax Reform and Tax Relief Legislative Task Force has recently begun meeting, and many Arkansans are taking an interest because there is an overwhelming sense that taxes are too high and our tax code is too complicated. I’ve met with and exchanged ideas with many legislators about tax reform and tax relief, and I know there is plenty of room to improve our tax code.

I laid out some of those ideas in a letter to the task force encouraging them to not only find ways to simplify and reform the tax code, but also to lower the overall tax burden on hardworking Arkansans.

But the key to reducing our tax burden is embracing something I’ve talked about since before I took office: transforming state government. I appreciate Gov. Hutchinson naming me co-chair of the Transformation Advisory Board (TAB). In that role, I continue to push for a state government that is more responsive, effective, and efficient.

What does transforming state government look like? In short, it means doing more with less. It means reforming government in a way that improves the services we provide to taxpayers while reducing the cost to provide those services. It means updating state government, much of which was designed in the Cold War era, to adapt to the era of the iPad and Uber.

Transforming state government is the key that will unlock the door to solving some of our biggest challenges like reducing the tax burden or finding a long-term solution to funding highways and infrastructure. As elected officials, we have a moral obligation to spend taxpayer dollars wisely and deliver more value to Arkansans in return for the taxes they pay. Doing so will involve cutting waste, saving money, and investing tax dollars where they are most needed, as well as returning the dividends to Arkansans in the form of tax relief.

Since taking office, my goal has been to do more with less. I have reduced my office budget by over fifteen percent and have reduced the number of staff members from four to two. I recently declined the pay increase for elected officials that was recommended by the Independent Citizens Commission because I feel strongly that at a time when Arkansans are overtaxed and budgets are tight, increasing my salary shouldn’t be a priority. I am committed to being a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. Even though my office doesn't have a large budget, I believe that if we spend our pennies wisely, the dollars will add up. Together, we can transform state government for the betterment of all Arkansans.
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Tim Giffin is the Lt Governor of Arkansas and a former U.S. Representative for Arkansas's 2nd congressional district (2011 to 2015). He is a former Special Assistant to the President GW Bush and Deputy Director in the Office of Political Affairs. And served previously as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

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Tags: Tim Griffin, Arkansas, Lt Governor, government, doing more with less To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!