Senate Republicans Just Blocked A Bunch Of Gun Control Measures

WASHINGTON -- One day after 14 people were killed in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Senate Democrats pushed through votes on measures to strengthen gun control laws. Republicans succeeded in blocking every single one.

In an effort to apply pressure on their GOP colleagues, Senate Democrats tried to change the focus of legislation aimed at repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood on the Senate floor Thursday. Their package attempted to strip out the text of the underlying bill and replace it with three measures that would have blocked individuals on terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns, expanded existing gun background checks, and increased funding for mental health services and treatment for substance abuse disorders. 

"Our thoughts and prayers are not even close to enough. This country is dangerously close to falling into a new normal," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate's third-ranking Democrat. "Is this the kind of country we want to be? Senate Democrats are not waiting one more day."

Democrats offered the package during a vote-a-rama on the GOP Obamacare bill. While every amendment failed -- they each needed to secure 60 votes -- Schumer said earlier in the day that the point of it all was to ensure the entire country knows where every senator stands on the issue. He predicted a "good number" of Republicans were "dreading" the votes. 

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Former intel chief says WH worried over re-elect 'narrative'

Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama's former top military intelligence official said Tuesday that the White House ignored reports prefacing the rise of ISIS in 2011 and 2012 because they did not fit its re-election "narrative."

"I think that they did not meet a narrative the White House needed. And I'll be very candid with you, they just didn't," retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."

Flynn, who has been critical of both Obama's and former President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq War and involvement in the Middle East, said that Obama was served poorly by a small circle of advisers who were worried about his re-election prospects at the time.

The story they needed to tell, he said, was that pulling troops from Iraq would not leave the region vulnerable to the rise of a radical Islamic group like ISIS.

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NATO invites Montenegro to join alliance, defying Russia

NATO foreign ministers invited tiny Montenegro on Wednesday to join their military alliance in its first expansion since 2009, defying Russian warnings that enlargement of the U.S.-led bloc further into the Balkans would be a provocation.

In a scripted session at NATO's headquarters in Brussels, Montenegro's Foreign Minister Igor Luksic strode into the imposing conference hall to loud applause from his peers as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg declared: "This is the beginning of a very beautiful alliance."

Stoltenberg said inviting Montenegro had nothing to do with Russia. But NATO diplomats have said the decision sends a message to Moscow that it does not have a veto on NATO's eastwards expansion, even if Georgia's membership bid has been complicated by its 2008 war with Russia.

Moscow opposes any NATO extension to former communist areas of eastern and southeastern Europe, part of an east-west struggle for influence over former Soviet satellites that is at the centre of the crisis in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last September that any expansion of NATO was "a mistake, even a provocation". In comments to Russian media then, he described NATO's so-called open door policy as "irresponsible".

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Trump builds his lead, Carson falls in latest Quinnipiac Poll

Republican Donald Trump solidifies his advantage nationally in the party's presidential race as Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton improves her showing in potential general election matchups, Quinnipiac University poll finds.

·         In contest for GOP nomination, Trump leads with 27%, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio with 17%

·         Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz tied with 16%, Jeb Bush next with 5%, no other contender tops 3%

·         In comparable poll released Nov. 4, Trump and Carson were in virtual tie for first

·         Poll Asst. Director Tim Malloy sums up: "Dr. Ben Carson, moving to center stage just one month ago, now needs some CPR. The doctor sinks. The Donald soars."

·         NOTE: Much of poll taken as reports emerged that Trump had disparaged reporter by making fun of his disability

Are the 'overwhelming majority of violent criminals' Democrats? Ted Cruz said so

During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said most violent criminals are Democrats.

It came after Hewitt brought up the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic that left three dead and nine injured in Colorado Springs, Colo., over Thanksgiving weekend. Hewitt told Cruz that he’d been doing anti-abortion events for 25 years and had never met "a single pro-life activist who is in favor of violence of any sort."

Cruz agreed. "And I would note that this whole episode has really displayed the ugly underbelly of the media," Cruz said. "You know, every time you have some sort of violent crime or mass killing, you can almost see the media salivating, hoping, hoping desperately that the murderer happens to be a Republican, so they can use it to try to paint their political enemies. Now listen, here’s the simple and undeniable fact. The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats. The media doesn’t report that."

We received dozens of emails from readers asking us to check the claim, so we took a closer look.

We queried the Cruz campaign, but didn’t hear back. CNN reported that Cruz’s campaign, when asked, cited research by two academics, Marc Meredith, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Michael Morse, then of Stanford University. They published a paper in the January 2014 edition of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science titled, "Do Voting Rights Notification Laws Increase Ex-Felon Turnout?"

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