Today's Top Stories - June 17, 2013

by Joseph J. McGrenra, CFCM
VNS Columnist

(April 29th, 2013)-Saturday April 20th saw the death of a great conservative. Unlike many that I have written about, I was privileged and honored to have known Howard for several years.

He was born in Boston, MA in 1941 and was Jewish by birth converting to Christianity in adulthood. I mention that because he was a man of faith, and his faith was extremely important to him. He attended and graduated from Harvard University, where he served as the President of the student Council for two terms, and he was present with William Buckley Jr. at the meeting that resulted in the birth of Young Americans for Freedom.  

 In the 1960’s he was selected as the Chairman of the Boston Republican Committee and held several positions in the administration of President Nixon. The last position was that of Acting Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. President Nixon had offered him that position and he had accepted it with the understanding that he would dismantle the agency. With Watergate and a suit by Democrats to stop the elimination of an agency that Congress created, President Nixon backed down and Howard Phillips resigned rather than oversee a government agency that he saw as wasteful and wanted to disestablish. One of the things that I admired about him was that he was a man of principle.   
   It was in 1974  that Howard established The Conservative Caucus (TCC) with the goal of harnessing conservative grassroots strength, and Howard and TCC were two important elements that led to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. From the 1970’s TCC fought and continues to fight many legislative battles.

During the last two decades of his life, Howard Phillips was instrumental in the creation of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, which in 1999 was rebranded the Constitution Party. He was their Presidential candidate in 1992, 1996, and in 2000.

Among the coverage report on his passing, the best quote that I have seen came from Arthur L. “Art” Harman, who was both a friend and a staffer to Howard who said “…Howard Phillips has been called "Tea Party before the Tea Party…”.

As far as his legacy, I cannot say it any better, but just to give just one example back in 1978; Howard Phillips was calling for the passage of a constitutional amendment to establish a Federal spending limit long before concerns about deficits and the National Debt.

I will save my last few words for the Howard Phillips that I knew. He was a nationally known conservative, and the first time that I contacted his office about a since forgotten issue, they didn’t ask for a contribution or pass me to an assistant, but connected me directly to Mr. Phillips.

His first order of business was to tell me to call him Howard. At the conclusion of our conversation, he invited me to drop by his office the next time that I was in Northern Virginia.
 I found myself with a business trip to Northern Virginia several months later, and I called expecting to be told he was unavailable. Much to my surprise he pulled out his calendar and put me on his schedule. When I dropped by, it was with the expectation of a quick handshake. I was surprised to get a tour of TCC headquarters and to have a great discussion.

As I was getting ready to leave, Howard asked me if I had had lunch, and he ended up inviting me out to lunch, where our discussion continued. Over the years he provided me with much advice and insight on politics and even gave me an opportunity to manage a campaign.

One of the things we spoke about was having him come down to Hampton Roads to speak. I had what I thought was a great tie-in for him to make the trip, but with his schedule and eventually health issues, and my lack of success with the tie-in (a long story that I don’t want to get into for this column) it unfortunately never happened.  

As I said, I was privileged and honored to have known Howard Phillips. He gave me much valuable advice and encouragement over the years.

Taylor

Three individuals with ties to 85th House District GOP candidate, Gary Byler,  for the seat being vacated by veteran Bob Tata have attempted to torpedo the candidacy of former SEAL and Fox News Analyst Scott Taylor with phony sex and drug allegations.

According to faked Facebook data provided Virginia News Source by 3 political operatives, 2 directly tied to Byler's campaign, Scott tried to set up a drug and sex party with a Peninsula woman, we'll call Bambi, in the Westin Hotel at Town Center the night of his campaign opening.

The documents of Facebook conversations exist, but are modified to appear real  but they aren't.  They are faked versions.

Byler told VNS Thursday he knew nothing about the campaign tactics which may constitute a federal or state crime.  He acknowledged that two of the three individuals involved were campaign workers.  

Taylor has contacted the FBI, calling the act a crime.

Adam's police mug shot

The data came from a third party, Peninsula political operative Kyle Adams, who admitted he brought the data to one of Byler's campaign officials, Gerry Scimeca.  Scimeca has been paid $8,000 by Byler's campaign.  Byler said Scimeca is a 'graphic designer.'  Scimeca said he is a consultant and not a graphic designer

Taylor said Byler lied to him because he had called and told him about the smear tactics about two weeks earlier.

Although the documents tied Bambi to Taylor, Bambi told VNS she'd never met Taylor. Had never seen Taylor. Had never spoken to Taylor. And had sent him only one email attempt to contact him, unrelated to the more recent actions of the Byler operatives.

Taylor said the same thing:  Never heard of her, never knew her, never talked to her and only responded to one public comment from her on Facebook - asking her to identify herself.

by John P.Kuchta Jr.
VNS Columnist

Boston Bombing - Alharbi

Let’s go over some of the key points in the tragedy of the Boston bombings:

1. This man was tackled by a spectator at the Boston Marathon shortly after he was seen running from the bomb scene, having sustained burns to parts of his body.  The spectator turned Alharbi over to Boston Police explaining that he “may something, he may be nothing.”  Alharbi was hospitalized under heavy guard.  I’m talking SWAT Teams surrounding the hospital.

   by John P. Kuchta Jr. VNS Columnist   Boston Bombing – FBI and CIA Failures Is it embarrassing for the anti-terror folks within the federal government to have a man flying in and out of this country to terror hotbeds like Dagestan and Chechnya and not so much as have a parking ticket placed under his windshield wiper? That’s what we’re learning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s personal history during the last three years and the events that lead him to be a willing operative in a conspiracy to take American lives. The CIA added Tamerlan Tsarnaev to a “Terrorist Database” eighteen months ago, after being contacted by Russian intelligence types and long before Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan in January 2012 for a six month stay.

2. Alharbi’s apartment was searched for 9 hours by the FBI and his apartment mates were interviewed by the FBI for five hours. On Tuesday, Alharbi was being referred to as a “Suspect.”
3. As a result of the FBI search and interviews, an “Event” file was opened on Alharbi which designated him under the Patriot Act provisions as a “212 3b,”  essentially a terrorist or soon-to-be terrorist.  

Several interesting things were immediately discovered.  One was that Alharbi was on a “No Fly List,” but was allowed to enter the country anyway on a special “VIP” exemption, usually reserved for heads of state.   And, a previous “Event” file existed on this man.  Curiously, nobody could find that file.

4.  On Wednesday, after Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Saudi Foreign Minister and Obama met with both the Saudi Foreign Minister and the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, “someone” altered the Alharbi file to remove the “212 3b” designation.