After long fight against brain cancer, John McCain ends treatment
Arizona Sen. John McCain has discontinued medical treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer, his family says. It’s a likely indication that the war hero, onetime presidential nominee and longtime lawmaker is nearing the end of his life. The 81-year-old McCain has surpassed expectations for survival, but “the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the family said in a statement. “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment.” The six-term GOP senator, whose birthday is Aug. 29, has been away from the Capitol since last December. McCain’s wife, Cindy, said in a tweet Saturday that the McCain family was “overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from around the world” after Friday’s announcement. If McCain should resign his seat or die soon, Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey would name a replacement to serve until the 2020 election. The winner of that election would serve the remainder of McCain’s term through 2022. The entire McCain family is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from around the world. Thank you. — Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) August 25, 2018 In more than three decades in Congress, McCain became known as a political maverick willing to stick to his convictions rather than go along with party leaders — an independent streak that has drawn a mix of respect and ire. Most recently, he has been a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, keeping up his criticism of the White House even while undergoing severe medical treatment in Arizona. In July, he issued a searing rebuke of Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling it a “tragic mistake” and “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” The strained relationship between Trump and McCain dates back to 2015, when Trump suggested the Vietnam veteran, who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison after his Navy plane was shot down, was not a war hero. The ill will grew after McCain voted in 2017 against a Republican replacement for the Obama-era health law. He doomed the bill with a dramatic thumbs-down on the Senate floor. Complaints about McCain’s vote have become a staple of Trump’s campaign speeches. He doesn’t mention McCain by name but makes clear his intent by mockingly imitating the thumbs-down gesture. The feud between the two men has persisted even amid the decline in McCain’s health. While political leaders of both parties paid tribute to McCain and offered prayers Friday, Trump and the White House remained silent. Trump did not mention McCain or the health care vote in a speech Friday night at a fundraising dinner in Ohio. Earlier this month, Trump signed a military policy bill named for McCain, but he made no mention of McCain at a signing ceremony. The son and grandson of Navy admirals, McCain is a former Navy pilot. He was elected to Congress in 1982 and to the Senate four years later, replacing the retired Barry Goldwater. Despite his famous stubborn streak and occasional orneriness, McCain is widely admired on both sides of the aisle, and tributes poured in Friday after the family announced the treatment decision. “We are so fortunate to call him our friend and colleague,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Twitter. “The entire McCain family are in our prayers at this incredibly difficult hour.;; Ducey called McCain “an American hero” who always put his country before himself. A “spirt of service and civility” guided McCain’s life, standing as a model for Americans regardless of political affiliation, Ducey said. McCain had surgery in July 2017 to remove a blood clot in his brain after being diagnosed with an aggressive tumor called a glioblastoma. It’s the same type of tumor that killed Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., at age 77 in 2009. McCain rebounded quickly, however, returning to Washington and entering the Senate in late July to a standing ovation from his colleagues. In a dramatic turn, he later cast the deciding vote against the Republican health care bill, earning Trump’s enduring wrath. McCain’s condition worsened last fall, and he has been in Arizona since December. A source close to McCain who asked not to be identified said Friday the senator was at his Arizona ranch with his family. He is a long-term survivor of melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. But doctors classified his brain cancer as a “primary tumor,” meaning it’s not related to his former malignancies. McCain ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, then won it in 2008 before losing the general election to Obama. When Republicans took control of the Senate in 2015, McCain embraced his new influence as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, pushing for aggressive U.S. military intervention overseas and eager to contribute to “defeating the forces of radical Islam that want to destroy America.” Asked how he wanted to be remembered, McCain said: “That I made a major contribution to the defense of the nation.” Former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a close friend, said Friday that “becoming John McCain’s friend has been one of the great blessings of my life. Today I am praying for him and his family.” Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, said on Twitter, “No man this century better exemplifies honor, patriotism, service, sacrifice and country first than Senator John McCain. His heroism inspires, his life shapes our character. I am blessed and humbled by our friendship.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Jim Bonner appeal fails at Alabama Republican Party meeting
During the Alabama Republican Party’s (ALGOP) summer meeting on Saturday the party voted overwhelmingly to deny an appeal from controversial Public Service Commission candidate Jim Bonner. Bonner was not present for the appeal. “I’m asking this body to trust your leadership and pass this motion,” ALGOP Chairman Terry Lathan said, according to Jeff Poor on Twitter. Jim Bonner appeal overwhelming fails #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/Ryo7BaAySO — Jeff Poor (@jeff_poor) August 25, 2018 Bonner under fire Before the June 5 primary, the party censured Bonner and announced that they wouldn’t certify any votes for the candidate. Bonner quickly announced he would be appealing the party’s decision, saying the that Republican leaders were against him because he was “campaigning for tighter regulation of the politically powerful Alabama Power Company.” However, Lathan named different reasons for censuring Bonner, naming the opinions he expressed on his radio show, and on social media as the chief cause. “In post after post, Bonner seems to revel in racist, sexist and anti-semite comments, but this has dampened his support among those who think he is someone he’s not,” wrote APR. But Bonner doesn’t consider himself racist or anti-Semitic. In May, he responded to a post on his Facebook wall about political correctness and those attacking him. “The base republicans ( the swamp) are shoveling money into liberal attach dogs to go through my facebook line by line and find something they can use to let the public know that Jim Bonner is unfit to be a member of the party that produced Guy Hunt, Mike Hubbard, Roy Moore, and Bentler the luv guv,” he wrote. Still, Lathan was not buying it. “The Alabama Republican Party Candidate Committee voted unanimously to publicly censure and strongly condemn Mr. Jim Bonner, candidate for Public Service Commission, Place 1,” Lathan said in a press release in June. “Mr. Bonner’s recent comments on his social media as well as radio shows are not condoned by the Alabama Republican Party.” “When our state party chooses to take these steps, it is a serious and rare occurrence. We strongly believe that this is one of those solemn moments. This vote was carefully considered and was not taken lightly,” Lathan said.
A rose by any other name: Randall Woodfin rejects “sanctuary city” label for “welcoming city” instead
Advocates for sanctuary cities have been trying for several years to get Birmingham officials to officially designate the city as such. Last year, Birmingham City Councilman Jonathan Austin led the city council in passing a resolution declaring the city a sanctuary city and then there was a tweet from the city that received a lot of attention but formally it’s never been on the list of cities kept by immigration groups. At the end of July, Alabama Today reported, that “the Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama), the state’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, and Adelante Alabama Workers Center, which unites day laborers, domestic workers, and other low-wage and immigrant workers and their families in the Birmingham area, along with other coalition partners, faith and civic leaders, met outside of the Birmingham City Hall where they called on Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to honor his commitment to be on the front lines of resistance to President Donald Trump‘s polices. There they endeavored to hold the Mayor to the progressive mandate he was elected on by calling him to take action on the proposed “Trust and Public Safety” order.” This was not the first time Woodfin has been asked to commit to giving Birmingham the sanctuary city title, even as a candidate he was asked to commit to making Birmingham one. At a filming of NPR’s “Code Switch” it seems he has finally publicly closed the door on that according to transcripts saying, “I think sanctuary city is narrowly tailored and isolated towards don’t have your police enforce certain things of rounding up and hurting people, which I agree with. We’re not going to do that. But welcoming cities is more broad about, how do we help our immigrant community? And as I go to Birmingham city schools, I can tell you our immigrant community continues to grow. So it’s – for me it has a broader positive impact, whereas sanctuary is don’t do this. Welcoming is, this is what we’re going to do.” What exactly is a “Welcoming City?” Well according to their website, “Welcoming Cities are guided by the principles of inclusion and creating communities that prosper because everyone feels welcome, including immigrants and refugees.” According to the group promoting welcoming cities pledge some cities choose to be both sanctuary-cities and welcoming but not all. There you have it. He’s not going to make Birmingham a “sanctuary city.” Does that mean that residents can rest easy knowing that the police will be making sure that illegal immigrants who may be committing additional crimes besides just residing in our nation illegally are properly checked out? No. Woodfin was clear that police would not be checking the status of immigrants with ICE or reporting immigrant arrest or crimes to them. After all, that wouldn’t be very welcoming would it? So what happens when a member of a foreign gang here illegally is arrested or pulled over in Birmingham? Well they can get bailed out and disappear into the night because heaven knows we that’s the kind thing to do. What happens when the immigrant who has overstayed their work or school visa and is stopped and police recognize that they’re not here legally? Nothing more than would happen to someone here legally. Pesky law makers and federal law enforcement can’t expect the Birmingham Police to be bothered helping them catch human traffickers, identity thieves or drug smugglers that would just be downright inhospitable. Woodfin and illegal immigration proponents would say that’s kind and compassionate but how is that kind to those waiting to get into the country legally? How is it compassionate towards those who have lost their lives or their identities to illegal immigrants? It’s out of fairness for the doctor at UAB from out of the country or engineer at one of the new high-tech companies who went through the legal avenues for citizenship that the illegal folks get to stay too. Just this week in Jasper an illegal immigrant attempted to abduct a woman. If that happened here in Birmingham then Mayor Woodfin says his police department wouldn’t alert ICE to the immigrants arrest and location. How’s that for ridding our city of crime or making it more enticing to businesses? It’s a logical cop-out to accuse those who are opposed to illegal immigration of being against immigrants. Leave it to those who support open borders and blanket mass amnesty to say that those who did things the right way should be lumped in with those who are breaking the law. Many who are here and working are using fake or stole identities. Don’t believe this is an issue for cities all over the nation, just read some of the latest cases brought by ICE. So Woodfin would have you believe all immigrants deserve the same level of respect and protections regardless of legal status at least he’s stopped hedging his bets. He may get to say he’s not for sanctuary cities but so long as he has his police department turn a blind eye towards illegal immigrants and their presence here he might as well be. Full immigration section of NPR transcript below: MERAJI: President Trump has a zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration. We know this. And we also know that here in Birmingham, you’ve gotten a little bit of criticism from the immigrants’ rights community… WOODFIN: I have. MERAJI: …Because they really want you to sign an executive order to basically put in writing that you won’t use your city’s resources for immigration enforcement, that you won’t use your city’s resources to surveil Muslim residents. Can you respond to that criticism? WOODFIN: First thing is this – is that I’m not. Like, we’re not going to use our police to do anything around what I call rounding up people. We just don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in that as mayor. I’ve had a clear, direct conversation with my police chief. I’ve had a clear and direct conversation with my chief of our city jail. We’re not in that business.
Lethal injection or gas? Alabama’s death row gets to choose
Some say inhaling nitrogen gas would be like dying on a plane that depressurizes in flight, swiftly killing all aboard. Now more than a quarter of Alabama’s death row inmates have signed statements saying they would prefer that gas over lethal injection or the electric chair when facing execution. No inmate in the U.S. has been put to death with nitrogen gas before, and critics suspect at least some inmates are simply hoping to delay a date with the death chamber through the inevitable legal challenges ahead. State corrections officials say 51 of Alabama’s 180 inmates have chosen nitrogen hypoxia, allowed a choice after Alabama lawmakers voted this year to authorize that alternative execution method. With difficulties obtaining execution drugs and litigation arising over claims of botched and horribly painful chemical injections this decade, Alabama is not alone as it joins Oklahoma and Mississippi in exploring that as a potential alternative. John Palombi, an attorney with the Federal Defenders Program, said his group advised inmates to request the uncertainties of nitrogen gas over what he called the known “torture” of Alabama’s three-drug cocktail. They had a June 30 deadline to make a choice. “Our decision to have our clients opt into use of nitrogen hypoxia was based on our belief that a three drug lethal injection protocol … is torturous and has tortured our clients,” Palombi wrote in an email, citing last year’s execution of Torrey McNabb and Ronald Smith Jr.’s the year before. While being sedated in the death chamber for the 1994 killing of a convenience store clerk, Smith coughed and heaved repeatedly for 13 minutes. His attorneys witnessed the execution and said his movements showed he was “not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure.” Lawyers for McNabb said his final moments were inhumanely painful as he rolled his head back and forth while being executed for a police officer’s 1997 slaying. State officials disputed that anything went wrong either time. Bob Horton of the Alabama Department of Corrections gave no time estimate for when the alternative method would be ready. But the spokesman assured in an email that the department “will have a protocol in place before the state carries out executions by nitrogen.” Republican state Sen. Trip Pittman, sponsor of Alabama’s legislation, believes nitrogen will prove more humane. He spoke of how aircraft passengers have passed out and died from a sudden plane depressurization. While nitrogen gas isn’t itself poisonous, anyone breathing it without breathing oxygen will lose consciousness and die from lack of oxygen. “The person will pass out and ultimately pass,” said Pittman. Much of what is known about death by nitrogen comes from research, industrial accidents and suicides. It’s not even clear how nitrogen would be delivered, whether via some type of mask or breathing apparatus. “This is entirely experimental,” said Randall Marshall, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama. “It is the epitome of cruel and usual punish because it is experimenting on human beings.” State Sen. Cam Ward said he thinks some inmates signed for nitrogen gas because lengthy challenges are foreseen. “Some of them, not all of them, are probably litigating this to avoid the death penalty,” said Ward, who chairs Alabama’s legislative committee that oversees state prisons. But he added other inmates probably believe inhaling nitrogen gas could be a better way to die: “I think they’ve seen stories of where the three-drug cocktail lethal injection has failed and there’s that fear of it being a botched process as opposed to nitrogen.” In neighboring Mississippi, officials have authorized nitrogen hypoxia for executions in the event lethal injection is held unconstitutional or becomes “unavailable.” No actual plans to begin using gas have been announced, however, and the state hasn’t executed anyone since 2012, partly because a legal challenge to its lethal injection procedure continues. Elsewhere, Oklahoma officials announced in March that the state will develop protocols to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates because of the problems obtaining lethal injection drugs. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said at the time that, “we can no longer sit on the sidelines and wait on the drugs.” Litigation over Alabama’s lethal injection method ended as the inmates opted for nitrogen. Alabama last month agreed to dismiss a lawsuit challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment because the eight inmate plaintiffs in the case had opted for nitrogen gas. The claims challenging the state’s lethal injection process as inhumane are now moot, “because their executions will be carried out at the appropriate time by nitrogen hypoxia,” attorneys wrote in a motion to the court. However, Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said he expects litigation over the use of nitrogen gas. He said Oklahoma’s execution process is currently subject to a federal court order. He noted that Alabama prisoners who selected nitrogen didn’t relinquish rights to challenge nitrogen gas or any other execution method. “Execution by nitrogen hypoxia has never been tried before and there are different potential dangers … I think it is highly likely that there will be challenges,” Dunham said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Doug Jones: Hit pause button on Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama on Friday repeated his call to hit the “pause button” on confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in order to review his voluminous record. The Alabama Democrat said his chief concern was having time to see the full documents from Kavanaugh’s past work, including his time as President George W. Bush’s staff secretary. The National Archives and Records Administration has estimated that a review of records from his time in the White House won’t be completed until the end of October, but Republicans want to hold hearings in September. “I want to make sure I’ve got all the evidence in before I make a decision,” Jones told reporters Friday after visiting Montgomery’s Booker T. Washington Magnet High School, which was partially destroyed by fire over the weekend. The state’s junior senator said a pause on the confirmation hearings would also give this week’s events “a chance to settle out,” referring to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s plea deal and the conviction of Trump’s former campaign chair. Jones said he has not made up his mind on the Trump nominee, despite pressure building on him from people and groups both opposing and supporting the appointment. During the stop in Montgomery, Jones criticized Trump’s attacks on the Department of Justice and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump has criticized Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe. “In all candor, it makes me sick,” Jones, a former U.S. attorney, said when asked by reporters about the attacks on the Department of Justice. Jones, who occupies the Senate seat previously held by Sessions, said he did not agree with Sessions “on a lot of his polices,” but said Sessions did the “correct thing” in stepping aside from the investigation involving Trump. “Jeff Sessions did the absolute correct thing morally, professionally, ethically and legally by recusing himself and we cannot overlook that fact,” Jones said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
