Mike Pence incorrectly claimed that Iran helped the 9/11 hijackers that attacked the World Trade Towers in 2001. In fact, Pence's claim is not only wrong, it was actually investigated by while Pence was in Congress.
Assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terro… https://t.co/MjP3Uy1lO0
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission began in 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks."
As Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake pointed out, page 241 of the 9/11 report which said the opposite.
"KSM and Binalshibh have confirmed that several of the 9/11 hijackers (at least eight, according to Binalshibh) transited Iran on their way to or from Afghanistan, taking advantage of the Iranian practice of not stamping Saudi passports. They deny any other reason for the hijackers' travel to Iran. They also deny any relationship between the hijackers and Hezbollah," the report said.
Later on the same page the investigators concluded that they agreed.
"We have found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack," the report also said.
Page 241 of the 9/11 Commission report:
https://t.co/PQlVWUTtcU https://t.co/8K89zDaARb
Churches and religious institutions like Liberty University are often able to skirt their support of a political party by welcoming a politician to speak from the pulpit or speak about what they say are "Christian values."
"If you vote Democrat, I don’t even want you around this church,” the witch-hunting pastor told the crowd of the Global Vision Bible Church earlier this month. "You can get out. You can get out, you demon. You can get out, you baby-butchering, election thief. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. I don’t care how mad that makes you. You can get as pissed off as you want to. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation."
He moved on to attack President Joe Biden, citing language often used by former President Donald Trump. Locke then attacked former President Barack Obama, claiming he is behind all of America's problems.
He went on to speculate the Buffalo shooting had nothing to do with race, despite the shooter's manifesto being clear on the topic. Finally, he warned his parishioners about demons and witchcraft.
Now a letter written to the IRS by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State says that Locke also "clearly told his congregants to vote against the Democrats, from the pulpit of his church," which they said "violates the law and we ask for an investigation into Locke’s conduct under 26 U.S.C. § 7611."
The law makes it clear that no non-profit that is tax-exempt can “[d]irectly or indirectly [] participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."
The US men's and women's national soccer teams will receive equal pay under a "historic" agreement announced by the US Soccer Federation on Wednesday, following years of pressure from female national players.
The move makes the federation the first in the world to equalize World Cup prize money awarded to men's and women's teams, it said.
"This is a truly historic moment. These agreements have changed the game forever here in the United States and have the potential to change the game around the world," said US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone.
In February, the US national women's team won a $24 million payout and a promise of equal pay in a landmark settlement with US Soccer, that was contingent on the new collective bargaining agreement.
The question of World Cup prize money had formed a prominent part of the lawsuit filed by the women's team in 2019, which accused the federation of "stubbornly refusing" to pay its men and women's players equally.
The terms of Wednesday's agreement include "identical compensation for all competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, and the introduction of the same commercial revenue sharing mechanism for both teams," USSF said.
"The accomplishments in this CBA (collective bargaining agreement) are a testament to the incredible efforts of WNT players on and off the field," said US women's captain Becky Sauerbrunn, adding that she hoped the agreement "will similarly serve as the foundation for continued growth of women's soccer both in the United States and abroad."
The United States women have won four Women's World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals. They are chasing an unprecedented third consecutive Women's World Cup crown after hoisting trophies in 2015 at Canada and 2019 in France. They last won Olympic gold in London in 2012.
There’s a lot to be worried about in the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade — and with it, half a century of constitutional precedent.
At least 26 states are likely to criminalize abortions, often without exceptions for rape, incest, or life-threatening pregnancies. In Louisiana, people seeking abortions could even face execution, which doesn’t strike me as particularly pro-life.
A few states are already rushing to attack contraception too, with officials in Idaho and Louisiana pushing to ban IUDs, the morning after pill, and other common birth control methods. Hardline lawmakers are also likely to ban methods of conception, including in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.
Down the line, experts warn that the rights to interracial marriage, same-sex marriage, and even divorce, parental custody, and the right to accept or refuse medical treatment could be in jeopardy. People’s control over their own intimate decisions and private lives is at stake.
But among the most alarming things in the draft ruling is its sneering pretense that this is somehow about safeguarding democracy. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito.
That’s the same “states’ rights” deceit once used to defend segregation.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called states “laboratories of democracy.” These days, as former Hamilton County, Ohio commissioner David Pepper put it in his book of the same name, many have become “laboratories of autocracy.”
Pepper and I share a home state that’s a case in point.
On two occasions, Ohio voters have overwhelmingly mandated fairer legislative districts. And four times, a bipartisan state Supreme Court majority has held that the extremely gerrymandered maps Ohio Republicans have proposed violate the state constitution.
Ohio Republicans are nonetheless forcing these illegal maps on voters to protect their unlawful one-party rule. “Returning power over basic civil rights to illegally gerrymandered states like Ohio is an absolute disaster in waiting,” concludes David DeWitt in the Ohio Capital Journal.
But it gets even more absurd elsewhere.
In states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina, Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly gotten more votes than their Republican counterparts. But rigged maps keep giving Republicans sizable majorities — which they’ve then used in all three states to strip power from Democratic governors elected statewide.
It’s not just abortion. Again and again, unaccountable state governments are showing themselves incapable of decent governance.
In a case that’s now the subject of a federal bribery investigation, corrupt Ohio lawmakers took money taxpayers were investing in renewable energy and used it to bail out coal and nuclear plants — even one in Indiana.
Frankly, things aren’t much better at the federal level — and Alito should know.
Five of the six conservative seats on the Supreme Court, including Alito’s, were filled by Republicans who initially lost the popular vote — and confirmed by Republican Senate “majorities” representing a minority of Americans.
The same Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression while lifting bans on money in politics. So much for the power of the people.
The loser here isn’t the big-D Democratic Party. It’s small-d democracy. When politicians can do whatever they want to us, everyone loses.
Decades ago, it took a national civil rights movement and federal legislation to reclaim common sense and decency from extremist state governments. Today, it’s also going to take reforming the Supreme Court.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and Twitter.
