MAY 30, 2013
Chechen lawyer Dagir Khasavov fled Russia after receiving death threats following his calls for Sharia law to be introduced in the country.
The Russian Political Immigrants society announced on Friday that he swiftly left the country, BBC reported.
The lawyer left for “a European country” after receiving threats. His son, Arlsan Khasavov, wrote in his blog that his father was provoked, possibly by Chechen authorities, to make him a “ritual sacrifice” before the inauguration.
Khasanov gave an interview to Ren TV on April 24, where he said that Muslims in Russia do not want to go to secular courts and Russia must use Sharia law.
“Muslims do not want to get involved in the multilayered court system, it is alien to them. You think that we come here to Russia like to some alien place. But we think that we are at home. Maybe you are alien, and we are at home. And we will set the rules, the rules that suit us, whether you want it or not. Any attempts to change it will end in blood, it will be the second Dead Sea. We will flood the city with blood.”
Khasavov told Interfax on Wednesday that his words were distorted. He said when he was talking about Sharia law, he meant inter-family cases, and not criminal. He also said he was not aware that the comments would be filmed by the crew.
Prosecutors see extremism
The Prosecutor’s Office saw the lawyer’s statement as extremist based on an investigation by The Russian Institute of Culture. Experts found that the speech was aimed at exciting hatred and animosity based on religion (Islam), and could be considered a call for extremist activity, a Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman told Interfax.
The materials were sent to the Investigative Committee.
Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor is also examining the interview.
Calls to strip Khasavov of attorney status
A number of organisations call for Khasavov’s lawyer credentials to be annulled. The All-Russia Officers of Russia public organisation asked the head of Moscow Bar Association, Genry Reznik, to start a disciplinary investigation and to deny Khasavov the status of attorney, Interfax reported.
“The appeal notes in particular that such statements from a lawyer are damaging to the credibility of all Russian lawyers,” head of Officers of Russia, Anton Tsevtkov, told Interfax.
“Khasavov, using the media as his platform, basically expressed threats of violence on a religious basis.”
Reznik, however, replied that no action will be taken until the police examine the evidence.
Moscow news
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Iran 'in Latin America terror plot' - Argentina prosecutor
MAY 30, 2013
An Argentine prosecutor has accused Iran of trying to infiltrate countries in Latin America to sponsor and carry out "terrorist activities".
Alberto Nisman said Iran was attempting to set up intelligence-gathering stations in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and other countries in the region.
Mr Nisman is investigating a bomb attack that killed 85 people in a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994.
Iran has always denied involvement in the attack.
But in an indictment handed to a federal judge in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, Mr Nisman repeated the often-made claim that Iran sponsored the bombing.
And he accused Iran of a nefarious project in the wider region.
"I legally accuse Iran of infiltrating several South American countries to install intelligence stations - in other words espionage bases - destined to commit, encourage and sponsor terror attacks like the one that took place against Amia," Mr Nisman was quoted as saying, referring to the Jewish centre bombed nearly 20 years ago.
He said the countries targeted included Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Surinam.
And he claimed that Mohsen Rabbani - the Iranian former cultural attache in Buenos Aires who Argentina blames for the Amia attack - was co-ordinating the alleged infiltration operation.
In February Argentine legislators approved an agreement with Iran to set up an international truth commission to investigate the Amia attack.
The Argentine government proposed this commission as a way to reactivate investigations into the bombing, but the opposition and some Jewish groups in Argentina have criticised it.
Argentina has issued arrest warrants for several Iranian nationals and a Lebanese national in connection with the bombing.
BBC
An Argentine prosecutor has accused Iran of trying to infiltrate countries in Latin America to sponsor and carry out "terrorist activities".
Alberto Nisman said Iran was attempting to set up intelligence-gathering stations in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and other countries in the region.
Mr Nisman is investigating a bomb attack that killed 85 people in a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994.
Iran has always denied involvement in the attack.
But in an indictment handed to a federal judge in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, Mr Nisman repeated the often-made claim that Iran sponsored the bombing.
And he accused Iran of a nefarious project in the wider region.
"I legally accuse Iran of infiltrating several South American countries to install intelligence stations - in other words espionage bases - destined to commit, encourage and sponsor terror attacks like the one that took place against Amia," Mr Nisman was quoted as saying, referring to the Jewish centre bombed nearly 20 years ago.
He said the countries targeted included Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Surinam.
And he claimed that Mohsen Rabbani - the Iranian former cultural attache in Buenos Aires who Argentina blames for the Amia attack - was co-ordinating the alleged infiltration operation.
In February Argentine legislators approved an agreement with Iran to set up an international truth commission to investigate the Amia attack.
The Argentine government proposed this commission as a way to reactivate investigations into the bombing, but the opposition and some Jewish groups in Argentina have criticised it.
Argentina has issued arrest warrants for several Iranian nationals and a Lebanese national in connection with the bombing.
BBC
Helping Syrian rebels a dangerous risk
MAY 30, 2013
Editor's note: Rand Paul, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
(CNN) -- The United States has a history of often picking sides in Middle East conflicts to its own detriment.
In the 1980s, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with Saddam Hussein to establish a relationship that helped the dictator gain access to American arms during Iraq's war with Iran. In the 1990s, the U.S. would drive former ally Hussein from Kuwait and impose a decade of sanctions that were devastating for Iraqis, but had little effect on the dictator. In 2003, we went to Iraq, overthrew Hussein, and became part of nation-building effort from which we only recently saw most of our soldiers return home.
Arguably one of the greatest beneficiaries of the Iraq war was Iran, which now enjoys more power and influence with the elimination of its historic enemy. President George H.W. Bush did not pursue Hussein directly during Operation Desert Storm precisely because he feared the destabilizing effects it might have on the region, or as his Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney explained in 1994, "Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place?" Today, Iraq is unstable and its future uncertain.
Moammar Gadhafi eventually accepted responsibility in the 1988 bombing of an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed hundreds of people, including American schoolchildren.
President Reagan called Gadhafi the "mad dog of the Middle East."
Fast forward to 2008, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to Libya to meet with Gadhafi to offer American support.
In 2009, members of the U.S. Senate -- Republicans Lindsey Graham and John McCain and an independent, Joe Lieberman -- would travel to Libya to meet with Gadhafi to offer further aid. Sen. McCain said: "We discussed the possibility of moving ahead with the provision of nonlethal defense equipment to the government of Libya." President Obama would eventually meet with Gadhafi to reconfirm the same relationship established during the Bush administration.
By 2011, President Obama was arming Libyan rebels and ordering airstrikes to overthrow Gadhafi. Some of the president's most vocal supporters were the same Republicans who traveled to Libya two years before to help Libya's strongman acquire military equipment. Sen. McCain said of the Libyan rebels: "I have met with these brave fighters, and they are not al Qaeda. ... To the contrary: They are Libyan patriots who want to liberate their nation. We should help them do it."
We did help them, something I opposed on the Senate floor as an unconstitutional overreach by the executive branch. We now have reason to believe that the Libyan rebels did contain elements of al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists.
Now we see the same enthusiasm for another U.S. intervention, this time in Syria. The Syria Transition Support Act approved last week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which I am a member, has the potential to create more problems for the United States than it would solve. It is unclear what national security interests we have in the civil war in Syria. It is very clear that any attempt to aid the Syrian rebels would be complicated and dangerous, precisely because we don't know who these people are.
The situation in Syria is certainly dire. At least 70,000 people have died, and al Qaeda is making confirmed inroads into the country. No one wants to see Syria become a bastion of extremism. But like other American interventions in the past, U.S. involvement could actually help the extremists.
There is also the quandary of nearly 2 million Christians who are uncertain of what to do. The Christian community in Syria has traditionally sided with, and been protected by, Bashar al-Assad's regime. It is troubling to think that American arms may be given to Islamic fighters who may in turn be firing them at Christians.
This month, it was reported that the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria executed 11 men who were part of al-Assad's forces. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is no friend to the U.S. -- but neither is al Qaeda. To aid members of al Qaeda in any way, directly or indirectly, is an insult to our brave men and women who've been fighting these terrorists since 9/11.
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this "transition support act" is that it would commit the United States to a leadership position in the restoration of Syria, and is very vague about what that looks like.
The language of "capacity building" contained in this act is an open-ended term that if logically followed, could eventually mean U.S. troops on the ground in Syria.
We "capacity built" in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Those who insist this language could never mean U.S. boots on the ground in Syria belong to the same Washington clique eager to support Hussein, Ghadafi and later, the Libyan rebels. Washington is not exempt from the law of unintended consequences.
Empowering Islamic extremists to achieve questionable short-term goals does not serve America's long-term security or interests. Nor does it serve the interests of nearly 2 million Christians in Syria who fear they could suffer the same fate as Iraqi Christians who were abused and expelled from that country as radical Islamic forces gained influence and power.
These Christians are natural allies of the United States, and if we're going to seriously discuss any American interests in Syria, the welfare of these Christians is more important than arming Islamic extremists.
History's primary lesson is that we must learn from the past. Although there are some well-intentioned reasons for wanting to intervene in Syria, there are far more well-documented reasons not to.
CNN
Editor's note: Rand Paul, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
(CNN) -- The United States has a history of often picking sides in Middle East conflicts to its own detriment.
In the 1980s, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with Saddam Hussein to establish a relationship that helped the dictator gain access to American arms during Iraq's war with Iran. In the 1990s, the U.S. would drive former ally Hussein from Kuwait and impose a decade of sanctions that were devastating for Iraqis, but had little effect on the dictator. In 2003, we went to Iraq, overthrew Hussein, and became part of nation-building effort from which we only recently saw most of our soldiers return home.
Arguably one of the greatest beneficiaries of the Iraq war was Iran, which now enjoys more power and influence with the elimination of its historic enemy. President George H.W. Bush did not pursue Hussein directly during Operation Desert Storm precisely because he feared the destabilizing effects it might have on the region, or as his Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney explained in 1994, "Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place?" Today, Iraq is unstable and its future uncertain.
Moammar Gadhafi eventually accepted responsibility in the 1988 bombing of an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed hundreds of people, including American schoolchildren.
President Reagan called Gadhafi the "mad dog of the Middle East."
Fast forward to 2008, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to Libya to meet with Gadhafi to offer American support.
In 2009, members of the U.S. Senate -- Republicans Lindsey Graham and John McCain and an independent, Joe Lieberman -- would travel to Libya to meet with Gadhafi to offer further aid. Sen. McCain said: "We discussed the possibility of moving ahead with the provision of nonlethal defense equipment to the government of Libya." President Obama would eventually meet with Gadhafi to reconfirm the same relationship established during the Bush administration.
By 2011, President Obama was arming Libyan rebels and ordering airstrikes to overthrow Gadhafi. Some of the president's most vocal supporters were the same Republicans who traveled to Libya two years before to help Libya's strongman acquire military equipment. Sen. McCain said of the Libyan rebels: "I have met with these brave fighters, and they are not al Qaeda. ... To the contrary: They are Libyan patriots who want to liberate their nation. We should help them do it."
We did help them, something I opposed on the Senate floor as an unconstitutional overreach by the executive branch. We now have reason to believe that the Libyan rebels did contain elements of al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists.
Now we see the same enthusiasm for another U.S. intervention, this time in Syria. The Syria Transition Support Act approved last week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which I am a member, has the potential to create more problems for the United States than it would solve. It is unclear what national security interests we have in the civil war in Syria. It is very clear that any attempt to aid the Syrian rebels would be complicated and dangerous, precisely because we don't know who these people are.
The situation in Syria is certainly dire. At least 70,000 people have died, and al Qaeda is making confirmed inroads into the country. No one wants to see Syria become a bastion of extremism. But like other American interventions in the past, U.S. involvement could actually help the extremists.
There is also the quandary of nearly 2 million Christians who are uncertain of what to do. The Christian community in Syria has traditionally sided with, and been protected by, Bashar al-Assad's regime. It is troubling to think that American arms may be given to Islamic fighters who may in turn be firing them at Christians.
This month, it was reported that the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria executed 11 men who were part of al-Assad's forces. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is no friend to the U.S. -- but neither is al Qaeda. To aid members of al Qaeda in any way, directly or indirectly, is an insult to our brave men and women who've been fighting these terrorists since 9/11.
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this "transition support act" is that it would commit the United States to a leadership position in the restoration of Syria, and is very vague about what that looks like.
The language of "capacity building" contained in this act is an open-ended term that if logically followed, could eventually mean U.S. troops on the ground in Syria.
We "capacity built" in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Those who insist this language could never mean U.S. boots on the ground in Syria belong to the same Washington clique eager to support Hussein, Ghadafi and later, the Libyan rebels. Washington is not exempt from the law of unintended consequences.
Empowering Islamic extremists to achieve questionable short-term goals does not serve America's long-term security or interests. Nor does it serve the interests of nearly 2 million Christians in Syria who fear they could suffer the same fate as Iraqi Christians who were abused and expelled from that country as radical Islamic forces gained influence and power.
These Christians are natural allies of the United States, and if we're going to seriously discuss any American interests in Syria, the welfare of these Christians is more important than arming Islamic extremists.
History's primary lesson is that we must learn from the past. Although there are some well-intentioned reasons for wanting to intervene in Syria, there are far more well-documented reasons not to.
CNN
'No One Can Rely on the U.S. Right Now'
MAY 30, 2013
The Jews of the United States need to strengthen themselves before they can strengthen Israel, Rabbi David Algaze told Arutz Sheva.
“Unfortunately, many Jews in America, instead of strengthening their sense of belonging to Israel, are joining forces with the enemies of Israel,” Rabbi Algaze, President of the World Committee For The Land Of Israel, said. He cited examples of Jewish institutions in the U.S. inviting people such as author Alice Walker and members of the PLO, who are clearly against Israel, for public appearances.
“We’ve forgotten our history and we’ve forgotten the efforts of our people to return to the land of Israel, and I think that the first thing that we can do is educate our people about our principles and history, and thus also to send to Israel that message,” he said.
Asked whether Israel can count on the support of the United States if and when the time comes to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Rabbi Algaze said that, right now, no country can rely on the United States to support it.
“President Obama is in a new policy of retreat and disengagement,” he said. “He’s uninterested in participating in any kind of conflict. Perhaps the only people who are interested are supporting Israel are the Arab nations that will probably be the targets of Iran, like Saudi Arabia.”
“I think Israel needs to consider its own actions. I know that it’s dangerous, that the Iranians’ response could cause a tragedy and victims in Israel, but if we allow the Iranians to have a nuclear bomb, the tragedy will be many times worse,” he added.
Source: INN
The Jews of the United States need to strengthen themselves before they can strengthen Israel, Rabbi David Algaze told Arutz Sheva.
“Unfortunately, many Jews in America, instead of strengthening their sense of belonging to Israel, are joining forces with the enemies of Israel,” Rabbi Algaze, President of the World Committee For The Land Of Israel, said. He cited examples of Jewish institutions in the U.S. inviting people such as author Alice Walker and members of the PLO, who are clearly against Israel, for public appearances.
“We’ve forgotten our history and we’ve forgotten the efforts of our people to return to the land of Israel, and I think that the first thing that we can do is educate our people about our principles and history, and thus also to send to Israel that message,” he said.
Asked whether Israel can count on the support of the United States if and when the time comes to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Rabbi Algaze said that, right now, no country can rely on the United States to support it.
“President Obama is in a new policy of retreat and disengagement,” he said. “He’s uninterested in participating in any kind of conflict. Perhaps the only people who are interested are supporting Israel are the Arab nations that will probably be the targets of Iran, like Saudi Arabia.”
“I think Israel needs to consider its own actions. I know that it’s dangerous, that the Iranians’ response could cause a tragedy and victims in Israel, but if we allow the Iranians to have a nuclear bomb, the tragedy will be many times worse,” he added.
Source: INN
National parliaments eclipsed by EU powers
MAY 30, 2013
BRUSSELS - The EU financial crisis has prompted centralisation of economic and budgetary powers in Brussels, while national parliaments struggle to fulfil their role as democratic watchdogs.
FULL STORY
BRUSSELS - The EU financial crisis has prompted centralisation of economic and budgetary powers in Brussels, while national parliaments struggle to fulfil their role as democratic watchdogs.
FULL STORY
Retiring ombudsman wants more transparent EU
MAY 30, 2013
Diamandouros: 'infinite transparency means no privacy and infinite privacy means no transparency, so you need ... balance'
Keep Reading>>
Diamandouros: 'infinite transparency means no privacy and infinite privacy means no transparency, so you need ... balance'
Keep Reading>>
UPDATE 2-Buffett pays $5.6 bln for Vegas utility, bulks up in West
MAY 30, 2013
(Reuters) - A Berkshire Hathaway Inc unit will pay $5.6 billion for NV Energy Inc, the electric utility serving Las Vegas and its power-hungry casinos, in yet another large energy deal for Warren Buffett in the western United States.
Berkshire's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co said on Wednesday it will buy NV Energy for $23.75 per share, a 23 percent premium to NV's Wednesday closing price. NV Energy shares rose to $23.90 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
It is not uncommon for shares in Buffett's target companies to trade slightly above the offer price, even where there are no competing bids and Buffett has said explicitly the offer is his best and final one.
"Berkshire has a lot of cash earning very little. If this is a $5.6 billion cash deal, then Berkshire turns low-yielding cash into $330 million of earnings," said Steve Check, president of Check Capital Management, an investment advisory firm, referring to NV Energy's earnings over the last 12 months.
"Nevada has historically been a fairly fast growth area," Check said. "Add it all up, and I'm sure this will be another good, safe investment for Berkshire."
NV Energy, which is based in Las Vegas and serves about 2.4 million people in Nevada, said last month it would accelerate the retirement of its coal-fired power generating facilities and the construction of natural gas and renewable power plants.
"We are pleased to make a long-term investment in Nevada's economy," Buffett, the billionaire investor who is Berkshire Hathaway's chairman, said in a statement.
In 2006, MidAmerican paid $5.1 billion for PacifiCorp, which serves California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The deal is also complementary to recent MidAmerican investments in renewable energy, including some big bets next door in California. MidAmerican is building the world's largest photovoltaic solar power plant in San Luis Obispo County, as well as a 160-megawatt geothermal plant near the Salton Sea.
NV Energy has just passed 1 gigawatt of renewable energy, with a target of 25 percent renewables by 2025, and is the largest user of geothermal energy in the United States.
Once the NV Energy deal is complete, MidAmerican will have assets of about $66 billion and its regulated electric and gas utilities will serve 8.4 million customers.
According to a filing with U.S. financial regulators, NV Energy will have to pay MidAmerican $170 million if it terminates the merger under certain circumstances.
The deal is expected to close in the 2014 first quarter.
Lazard served NV Energy as financial adviser, while Sidley Austin LLP, Hogan Lovells and Reno-based Woodburn and Wedge were its legal advisers.
source
(Reuters) - A Berkshire Hathaway Inc unit will pay $5.6 billion for NV Energy Inc, the electric utility serving Las Vegas and its power-hungry casinos, in yet another large energy deal for Warren Buffett in the western United States.
Berkshire's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co said on Wednesday it will buy NV Energy for $23.75 per share, a 23 percent premium to NV's Wednesday closing price. NV Energy shares rose to $23.90 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
It is not uncommon for shares in Buffett's target companies to trade slightly above the offer price, even where there are no competing bids and Buffett has said explicitly the offer is his best and final one.
"Berkshire has a lot of cash earning very little. If this is a $5.6 billion cash deal, then Berkshire turns low-yielding cash into $330 million of earnings," said Steve Check, president of Check Capital Management, an investment advisory firm, referring to NV Energy's earnings over the last 12 months.
"Nevada has historically been a fairly fast growth area," Check said. "Add it all up, and I'm sure this will be another good, safe investment for Berkshire."
NV Energy, which is based in Las Vegas and serves about 2.4 million people in Nevada, said last month it would accelerate the retirement of its coal-fired power generating facilities and the construction of natural gas and renewable power plants.
"We are pleased to make a long-term investment in Nevada's economy," Buffett, the billionaire investor who is Berkshire Hathaway's chairman, said in a statement.
In 2006, MidAmerican paid $5.1 billion for PacifiCorp, which serves California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The deal is also complementary to recent MidAmerican investments in renewable energy, including some big bets next door in California. MidAmerican is building the world's largest photovoltaic solar power plant in San Luis Obispo County, as well as a 160-megawatt geothermal plant near the Salton Sea.
NV Energy has just passed 1 gigawatt of renewable energy, with a target of 25 percent renewables by 2025, and is the largest user of geothermal energy in the United States.
Once the NV Energy deal is complete, MidAmerican will have assets of about $66 billion and its regulated electric and gas utilities will serve 8.4 million customers.
According to a filing with U.S. financial regulators, NV Energy will have to pay MidAmerican $170 million if it terminates the merger under certain circumstances.
The deal is expected to close in the 2014 first quarter.
Lazard served NV Energy as financial adviser, while Sidley Austin LLP, Hogan Lovells and Reno-based Woodburn and Wedge were its legal advisers.
source
Nullifying Obama: State governments revive a Jefferson-Madison theory
MAY 30, 2013
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is nullification — the idea that states can limit the enforcement of federal laws within their borders.
Supporters of nullification see it as a necessary and effective tool to protect states and citizens from the ever-growing power of the federal government. Detractors think this debate was settled by the Civil War, painting proponents of the idea as “neo-Confederates.” In fact, nullification is a growing movement with support on both sides of the political aisle.
Continue Reading..
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is nullification — the idea that states can limit the enforcement of federal laws within their borders.
Supporters of nullification see it as a necessary and effective tool to protect states and citizens from the ever-growing power of the federal government. Detractors think this debate was settled by the Civil War, painting proponents of the idea as “neo-Confederates.” In fact, nullification is a growing movement with support on both sides of the political aisle.
Continue Reading..
Islam’s Rule of Numbers
MAY 30, 2013
In London last week, two Muslim men shouting jihad’s ancient war-cry, “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight. They boasted of their crime in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped.
As surreal as this event may seem, Islamic beheadings are not uncommon in the West, including the U.S.
In 2011, a Pakistani-American who helped develop “Bridges TV”—a station “designed to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims”—beheaded his wife.
In Germany in 2012, another Muslim man beheaded his wife in front of their six children—again while hollering “Allahu Akbar.
Beheading non-Muslim “infidels” in the Islamic world is especially commonplace:
In Yemen a “sorceress” was beheaded by the “Supporters of Sharia”;
In Indonesia, three Christian girls on their way to school were beheaded; in Syria last Christmas, U.S.-supported rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to the dogs;
In Africa—Somalia, Tanzania, Mali—Christians are regularly decapitated. (For a comprehensive picture of Christian suffering under Islam, see my new book, “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.”)
Most recently, a disturbing video surfaced from “liberated” Libya of a machete-wielding masked man hacking at the head of a captive—again, to cries of “Allahu Akbar!”
But the greater lesson of the London beheading concerns its audacity—done in broad daylight with the attackers boasting in front of cameras, as often happens in the Islamic world.
It reflects what I call “Islam’s Rule of Numbers,” a rule that expresses itself with remarkable consistency: The more Muslims grow in numbers, the more Islamic phenomena intrinsic to the Muslim world—in this case, brazen violence against “infidels”—appear.
In the U.S., where Muslims are less than 1% of the population, London-style attacks are uncommon. Islamic assertiveness is limited to political activism dedicated to portraying Islam as a “religion of peace,” and sporadic, but clandestine, acts of terror.
In Europe, where Muslims make for much larger minorities, open violence is common. But because they are still a vulnerable minority, Islamic violence is always placed in the context of “grievances,” a word that pacifies Westerners.
With an approximate 10% Muslim population, London’s butchers acted brazenly, yes, but they still invoked grievances. Standing with bloodied hands, the murderer declared: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone…. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day.”
Grievances disappear when Muslims become at least 35-40% of a nation and feel capable of waging an all-out jihad, as in Nigeria, where the Muslim-majority north has been terrorizing Christians—bombing hundreds of churches and beheading hundreds of infidels.
Sudan was an earlier paradigm, when the Khartoum government slaughtered millions to cleanse Sudan of Christians and polytheists. Historically Christian-majority Lebanon plunged into a deadly civil war as the Muslim population grew restive.
Once extremists become the majority, the violence ironically wanes, but that’s because there are fewer infidels to persecute. And what infidels remain lead paranoid, low-key existences—as dhimmis—always careful to “know their place.”
With an 85% Muslim majority, Egypt is increasingly representative of this paradigm. Christian Copts are under attack, but not in an all-out jihad. Rather, under the Muslim Brotherhood their oppression is becoming institutionalized, including through new “blasphemy” laws which have seen many Christians attacked and imprisoned.
Attacks on infidels finally end when Muslims become 100% of the population, as in Saudi Arabia—where all its citizens are Muslim, and churches and other non-Islamic expressions are totally banned.
Hat tip: Raymond Ibrahim
In London last week, two Muslim men shouting jihad’s ancient war-cry, “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight. They boasted of their crime in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped.
As surreal as this event may seem, Islamic beheadings are not uncommon in the West, including the U.S.
In 2011, a Pakistani-American who helped develop “Bridges TV”—a station “designed to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims”—beheaded his wife.
In Germany in 2012, another Muslim man beheaded his wife in front of their six children—again while hollering “Allahu Akbar.
Beheading non-Muslim “infidels” in the Islamic world is especially commonplace:
In Yemen a “sorceress” was beheaded by the “Supporters of Sharia”;
In Indonesia, three Christian girls on their way to school were beheaded; in Syria last Christmas, U.S.-supported rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to the dogs;
In Africa—Somalia, Tanzania, Mali—Christians are regularly decapitated. (For a comprehensive picture of Christian suffering under Islam, see my new book, “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.”)
Most recently, a disturbing video surfaced from “liberated” Libya of a machete-wielding masked man hacking at the head of a captive—again, to cries of “Allahu Akbar!”
But the greater lesson of the London beheading concerns its audacity—done in broad daylight with the attackers boasting in front of cameras, as often happens in the Islamic world.
It reflects what I call “Islam’s Rule of Numbers,” a rule that expresses itself with remarkable consistency: The more Muslims grow in numbers, the more Islamic phenomena intrinsic to the Muslim world—in this case, brazen violence against “infidels”—appear.
In the U.S., where Muslims are less than 1% of the population, London-style attacks are uncommon. Islamic assertiveness is limited to political activism dedicated to portraying Islam as a “religion of peace,” and sporadic, but clandestine, acts of terror.
In Europe, where Muslims make for much larger minorities, open violence is common. But because they are still a vulnerable minority, Islamic violence is always placed in the context of “grievances,” a word that pacifies Westerners.
With an approximate 10% Muslim population, London’s butchers acted brazenly, yes, but they still invoked grievances. Standing with bloodied hands, the murderer declared: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone…. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day.”
Grievances disappear when Muslims become at least 35-40% of a nation and feel capable of waging an all-out jihad, as in Nigeria, where the Muslim-majority north has been terrorizing Christians—bombing hundreds of churches and beheading hundreds of infidels.
Sudan was an earlier paradigm, when the Khartoum government slaughtered millions to cleanse Sudan of Christians and polytheists. Historically Christian-majority Lebanon plunged into a deadly civil war as the Muslim population grew restive.
Once extremists become the majority, the violence ironically wanes, but that’s because there are fewer infidels to persecute. And what infidels remain lead paranoid, low-key existences—as dhimmis—always careful to “know their place.”
With an 85% Muslim majority, Egypt is increasingly representative of this paradigm. Christian Copts are under attack, but not in an all-out jihad. Rather, under the Muslim Brotherhood their oppression is becoming institutionalized, including through new “blasphemy” laws which have seen many Christians attacked and imprisoned.
Attacks on infidels finally end when Muslims become 100% of the population, as in Saudi Arabia—where all its citizens are Muslim, and churches and other non-Islamic expressions are totally banned.
Hat tip: Raymond Ibrahim
Pack of Somali Lone Wolves wanted in Minnesota
MAY 30, 2013
It looks like we may have another pack of lone wolves on the loose.
Via CBS Minnesota:
Police are looking for as many as six or seven Somali men after two joggers were randomly attacked in Fridley.
Authorities said two joggers were the victims of what are being labeled as random attacks on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. The joggers, both men, were on a path near East River Road and 37th Avenue NE when the attacks took place.
Police said one man suffered a bloody nose in the attack and the other has a sore throat. Authorities said these attacks were not robbery attempts and that the suspects randomly approached them and assaulted them.
This can only be one of two things. Either the joggers found themselves at the confluence of where several lone wolves met or they were attacked by a pack of lone wolves who had absolutely nothing in common.
Unless…
Source: Shoebat
It looks like we may have another pack of lone wolves on the loose.
Via CBS Minnesota:
Police are looking for as many as six or seven Somali men after two joggers were randomly attacked in Fridley.
Authorities said two joggers were the victims of what are being labeled as random attacks on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. The joggers, both men, were on a path near East River Road and 37th Avenue NE when the attacks took place.
Police said one man suffered a bloody nose in the attack and the other has a sore throat. Authorities said these attacks were not robbery attempts and that the suspects randomly approached them and assaulted them.
This can only be one of two things. Either the joggers found themselves at the confluence of where several lone wolves met or they were attacked by a pack of lone wolves who had absolutely nothing in common.
Unless…
Source: Shoebat
The U.S. Helps Reconstruct the Ottoman Empire
MAY 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims.
The photo, released by McCain’s office, shows McCain with a group of rebels. Among them are two men identified in the Lebanese press as Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, two of the kidnappers of the group from Lebanon.
A McCain spokesman said that no one who met with McCain identified themselves by either of those names.
“In coordination with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Senator John McCain traveled to and from Syria with General Salim Idris, the chief of staff of the Supreme Military Council of the Syrian opposition, to meet with two senior Free Syrian Army commanders,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers on Wednesday in an email to BuzzFeed. “None of the individuals the Senator planned to meet with was named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. A number of other Syrian commanders joined the meeting, but none of them identified himself as Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim.”
“As the Syrian Emergency Task Force has said: ‘Senator McCain did not go to Syria to meet with anyone named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. Two members of our organization were present in the meeting, and no one called himself by either name.’”
Rogers said that if the man in the photo turns out to actually be Mohamed Nour, that is “regrettable.”
“A number of the Syrians who greeted Senator McCain upon his arrival in Syria asked to take pictures with him, and as always, the Senator complied,” Rogers said. “If the individual photographed with Senator McCain is in fact Mohamed Nour, that is regrettable. But it would be ludicrous to suggest that the Senator in any way condones the kidnapping of Lebanese Shia pilgrims or has any communication with those responsible. Senator McCain condemns such heinous actions in the strongest possible terms,” Rogers said.
Rogers also suggested that the story had been slanted by pro-Assad forces: “It’s not surprising that the pro-Hezbollah forces supporting the Assad regime who originally promoted this distortion would seek to smear anything and anyone supporting the Syrian opposition.”
source: Buzzfeed
WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims.
The photo, released by McCain’s office, shows McCain with a group of rebels. Among them are two men identified in the Lebanese press as Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, two of the kidnappers of the group from Lebanon.
A McCain spokesman said that no one who met with McCain identified themselves by either of those names.
“In coordination with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Senator John McCain traveled to and from Syria with General Salim Idris, the chief of staff of the Supreme Military Council of the Syrian opposition, to meet with two senior Free Syrian Army commanders,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers on Wednesday in an email to BuzzFeed. “None of the individuals the Senator planned to meet with was named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. A number of other Syrian commanders joined the meeting, but none of them identified himself as Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim.”
“As the Syrian Emergency Task Force has said: ‘Senator McCain did not go to Syria to meet with anyone named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim. Two members of our organization were present in the meeting, and no one called himself by either name.’”
Rogers said that if the man in the photo turns out to actually be Mohamed Nour, that is “regrettable.”
“A number of the Syrians who greeted Senator McCain upon his arrival in Syria asked to take pictures with him, and as always, the Senator complied,” Rogers said. “If the individual photographed with Senator McCain is in fact Mohamed Nour, that is regrettable. But it would be ludicrous to suggest that the Senator in any way condones the kidnapping of Lebanese Shia pilgrims or has any communication with those responsible. Senator McCain condemns such heinous actions in the strongest possible terms,” Rogers said.
Rogers also suggested that the story had been slanted by pro-Assad forces: “It’s not surprising that the pro-Hezbollah forces supporting the Assad regime who originally promoted this distortion would seek to smear anything and anyone supporting the Syrian opposition.”
source: Buzzfeed
Reporters Grill Jay Carney About Holder’s Inconsistent Testimony on DOJ Scandal: ‘We Know He Was Involved’
MAY 30, 2013
Reporters grilled White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday over Attorney General Eric Holder’s seemingly misleading testimony on the Justice Department’s monitoring of members of the press.
Referring to Holder’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, Fox News reporter Ed Henry pointed out that the attorney general claimed he was unaware of any “potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material.”
It was later discovered that Holder personally signed off on the search warrant to obtain James Rosen’s personal emails, Henry explained.
“Even if the attorney general ruled out that he was going to prosecute Rosen…We know he was involved in it at the very least,” he told Carney. “Was he not telling the truth on that point?”
“Involved in what?” Carney asked.
“He signed off on the search warrant,” Henry shot back. “You’re not involved after signing a search warrant?”
Carney, unable to give a direct answer, again referred reporters to the Justice Department.
“You guys are conflating, you know, the subpoena with prosecution,” he told reporters.
After another journalist accused him of holding on to a “technical accuracy” regarding Holder’s testimony, Carney replied: “I’m not…I don’t see the conflict, but I would refer you to the Justice Department.”
Carney also said the White House was satisfied with IRS officials’ response to questions about the scandal plaguing the agency.
Source: Video and article available at The Blaze
 |
| White House Press Secretary Jay Carney listens to a question during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. Credit: AP |
Reporters grilled White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday over Attorney General Eric Holder’s seemingly misleading testimony on the Justice Department’s monitoring of members of the press.
Referring to Holder’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, Fox News reporter Ed Henry pointed out that the attorney general claimed he was unaware of any “potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material.”
It was later discovered that Holder personally signed off on the search warrant to obtain James Rosen’s personal emails, Henry explained.
“Even if the attorney general ruled out that he was going to prosecute Rosen…We know he was involved in it at the very least,” he told Carney. “Was he not telling the truth on that point?”
“Involved in what?” Carney asked.
“He signed off on the search warrant,” Henry shot back. “You’re not involved after signing a search warrant?”
Carney, unable to give a direct answer, again referred reporters to the Justice Department.
“You guys are conflating, you know, the subpoena with prosecution,” he told reporters.
After another journalist accused him of holding on to a “technical accuracy” regarding Holder’s testimony, Carney replied: “I’m not…I don’t see the conflict, but I would refer you to the Justice Department.”
Carney also said the White House was satisfied with IRS officials’ response to questions about the scandal plaguing the agency.
Source: Video and article available at The Blaze
Developer guilty of illegal contributions to Reid
MAY 30, 2013
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A Nevada powerbroker who headed a billion-dollar real estate company and pulled the strings of state politics as a prominent lobbyist for more than a decade was convicted Wednesday of making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.
FULL STORY
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A Nevada powerbroker who headed a billion-dollar real estate company and pulled the strings of state politics as a prominent lobbyist for more than a decade was convicted Wednesday of making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.
FULL STORY
California Senate approves 8 gun control bills, including ammo registry (VIDEO)
May 30, 2013
Although it can’t be positively confirmed, though maybe it’s just self-evident, a majority of state senators in the Golden State are itching to push through their pro-gun control agenda, approving at least seven bills on Wednesday that further restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners, including one bill that would set up an ammo registry.
That’s correct, under Senate Bill 53, responsible gun owners would be required to submit personal information to the state, undergo a background check and pay a $50 fee before being allowed to buy ammunition. Their information would be stored in a state database controlled by the Justice Department and the individual would have to present photo ID at a gun store upon making an ammo purchase.
Additionally, gun dealers and ammo vendors would be required to obtain special permits to sell ammunition. Those gun owners or gun dealers/ammo vendors who fail to follow the law would face misdemeanor charges.
READ: Excerpt from SB 53
Although it can’t be positively confirmed, though maybe it’s just self-evident, a majority of state senators in the Golden State are itching to push through their pro-gun control agenda, approving at least seven bills on Wednesday that further restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners, including one bill that would set up an ammo registry.
That’s correct, under Senate Bill 53, responsible gun owners would be required to submit personal information to the state, undergo a background check and pay a $50 fee before being allowed to buy ammunition. Their information would be stored in a state database controlled by the Justice Department and the individual would have to present photo ID at a gun store upon making an ammo purchase.
Additionally, gun dealers and ammo vendors would be required to obtain special permits to sell ammunition. Those gun owners or gun dealers/ammo vendors who fail to follow the law would face misdemeanor charges.
READ: Excerpt from SB 53
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
And now let's play "Name That Party": Legislators call on Redskins to drop 'R-word', claim it's as offensive as "Nigger" or "Wetback"
MAY 29, 2013
Letter calls team name a 'racial, derogatory slur'
Members of Congress are turning up the heat on Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder in an attempt to get him change the team's nickname.
Snyder, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the other 31 team owners and FexEx president and CEO Frederick Smith, whose company has naming rights to the Redskins' stadium, were sent a letter from 10 U.S. representatives requesting the team abandon a name that "Native Americans throughout the country consider the 'R-word' a racial, derogatory slur akin to the 'N-word' among African Americans or the 'W-word' among Latinos."
"Such offensive epithets would no doubt draw widespread disapproval among the NFL's fan base," the letter stated. "Yet the national coverage of Washington's NFL football team profits from a term that is equally disparaging to Native Americans."
The representatives who authored the letter were Eni F.H. Faleomavaega from American Samoa, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Donna M. Christensen of the Virginia Islands, Zoe Lofgren, Michael M. Honda and Barbara Lee of California, and Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia.
Snyder has vowed never to change the name.
The team had no comment on Tuesday, but Redskins general manager Bruce Allen said last week, "I think it's a non-issue and it's been a non-issue for decades. We really don't get the talk that other people get because we hear from our fans. And our fans will always be our fans of the Washington Redskins."
The letter went on to say, "In this day and age, it is imperative that you uphold your moral responsibility to disavow the usage of racial slurs. The usage of the (R-word) is especially harmful to Native American youth, tending to lower their sense of dignity and self-esteem. It also diminishes feelings of community worth among the Native American tribes and dampens the aspirations of their people."
source
Letter calls team name a 'racial, derogatory slur'
Snyder, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the other 31 team owners and FexEx president and CEO Frederick Smith, whose company has naming rights to the Redskins' stadium, were sent a letter from 10 U.S. representatives requesting the team abandon a name that "Native Americans throughout the country consider the 'R-word' a racial, derogatory slur akin to the 'N-word' among African Americans or the 'W-word' among Latinos."
"Such offensive epithets would no doubt draw widespread disapproval among the NFL's fan base," the letter stated. "Yet the national coverage of Washington's NFL football team profits from a term that is equally disparaging to Native Americans."
The representatives who authored the letter were Eni F.H. Faleomavaega from American Samoa, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Donna M. Christensen of the Virginia Islands, Zoe Lofgren, Michael M. Honda and Barbara Lee of California, and Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia.
Snyder has vowed never to change the name.
The team had no comment on Tuesday, but Redskins general manager Bruce Allen said last week, "I think it's a non-issue and it's been a non-issue for decades. We really don't get the talk that other people get because we hear from our fans. And our fans will always be our fans of the Washington Redskins."
The letter went on to say, "In this day and age, it is imperative that you uphold your moral responsibility to disavow the usage of racial slurs. The usage of the (R-word) is especially harmful to Native American youth, tending to lower their sense of dignity and self-esteem. It also diminishes feelings of community worth among the Native American tribes and dampens the aspirations of their people."
source
Microsoft's new Xbox will track EVERYTHING you watch on TV - but will reward you for watching the ads
MAY 29, 2013
Application submitted to the US Patent and Trademark office shows Microsoft's plans for tracking viewing habits of Xbox owners
The company plans to reward viewers who watch adverts or shows with credits and achievements
The new Kinect sensor can follow eye movements, track your reaction to shows using heart-rate monitors and see you in the dark
FULL STORY
Application submitted to the US Patent and Trademark office shows Microsoft's plans for tracking viewing habits of Xbox owners
The company plans to reward viewers who watch adverts or shows with credits and achievements
The new Kinect sensor can follow eye movements, track your reaction to shows using heart-rate monitors and see you in the dark
FULL STORY
Did Eric Holder Lie Under Oath? An Early Investigation of an Investigation
MAY 29, 2013
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether or not Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath during his testimony to them two weeks ago, as reported by The Hill. If the committee determines that he did, Holder could face five years in prison. It very well may. He almost certainly won't.
KEEP READING
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether or not Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath during his testimony to them two weeks ago, as reported by The Hill. If the committee determines that he did, Holder could face five years in prison. It very well may. He almost certainly won't.
KEEP READING
Report: Holder Went Judge Shopping To Obtain Fox News Subpoena
MAY 29, 2013
The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, a bulldog on the DOJ/Fox News secret subpoena story, reports that the effort by the Justice Department to obtain the controversial court order was arduous, contentious and unsuccessful until finally a third judge acquiesced.
FULL STORY
The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, a bulldog on the DOJ/Fox News secret subpoena story, reports that the effort by the Justice Department to obtain the controversial court order was arduous, contentious and unsuccessful until finally a third judge acquiesced.
FULL STORY
Loans subsidize ObamaCare
MAY 29, 2013
Recent speeches by Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander highlight a connection that has yet to be reported in the media and is yet to be understood by the young people struggling with high interest rates in the hopes of financing their college education.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, $8.7 billion of the money collected in student loan interest payments actually goes to pay for ObamaCare. The CBO estimates that the interest rate on these loans could be reduced from 6.8 percent to only 5.3 percent were the funds not used to subsidize the healthcare reform law and other federal programs.
CONTINUE TO ARTICLE
Recent speeches by Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander highlight a connection that has yet to be reported in the media and is yet to be understood by the young people struggling with high interest rates in the hopes of financing their college education.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, $8.7 billion of the money collected in student loan interest payments actually goes to pay for ObamaCare. The CBO estimates that the interest rate on these loans could be reduced from 6.8 percent to only 5.3 percent were the funds not used to subsidize the healthcare reform law and other federal programs.
CONTINUE TO ARTICLE
CONFIRMED: IRS Gave Preferential Treatment to Malik Obama’s Charity – Now Found Linked to Genocidal Regime
MAY 29, 2013
In light of the recent revelations that the IRS has been unfairly targeting conservative groups, President Obama’s half-brother “got a sweetheart deal” from the IRS. According to the Daily Caller, Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing.
But now there is evidence that the Barack H. Obama Foundation is linked to terrorism and genocide.
FULL STORY
In light of the recent revelations that the IRS has been unfairly targeting conservative groups, President Obama’s half-brother “got a sweetheart deal” from the IRS. According to the Daily Caller, Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing.
But now there is evidence that the Barack H. Obama Foundation is linked to terrorism and genocide.
FULL STORY
The Impeachable Offense
MAY 29, 2013
The Muslim Brotherhood in the White House! White House tours apparently compromised their free run of the place! Where is the impeachable offense?
Arif Alikhan – Assistant Secretary for Policy Development for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mohammed Elibiary – Homeland Security Adviser.
Rashad Hussain – Special Envoy to the (OIC) Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Salam al-Marayati – Obama Advisor and founder Muslim Public Affairs Council (and its current executive director.)
Imam Mohamed Magid – Obama’s Sharia Czar – Islamic Society of North America
Eboo Patel – Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships
Some of these terrorists go back to the first month of BHO’s first reign of terror, er … first (mis)-administration … all very bad guys.
Let’s not forget Hillary’s significant other in the State Department – Huma Abedin and her ties to the Egyptian MB where Christians are being persecuted and murdered.
This is where the impeachable offense comes in. The man and his minions solemnly swore to protect and defend the Constitution. He has been actively enabling the imposition of Sharia Law to replace the Constitution that anchors our freedom. With Sharia must come conversion to Islam as the religion of the United States and the world. Some already have an idea who would be the coveted Supreme Caliph.
Accompanying him to impeachment should be every judge that has ruled for the imposition of Sharia on a local basis, for every public, military, and diplomatic official who is actively forcing this other half of the culture of death on us. This should include any official who swore on an early version of the Constitution that preceded the Bill of Rights. They have spent American blood and treasure to remove “inconvenient” Muslim dictators who tolerated Christians and Jews while abandoning the people in the Middle East who looked to us to set them free.
The culture of death has two halves: Islam is a theocracy embracing imposed death or slavery for infidels, and “progressivism” with its complete disdain for the sanctity of human life at all stages, even to sexuality. These too are ultimately incompatible with a predictable outcome.
Statesmen in 1950 were taking into account that the temporal power of Islam may return on a broad scale (and with it, the menace that it may shake off a West that has ceased to be Christian and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power.)
I used to think Iran getting a nuclear weapon was the “100th egg.” Today, I’m almost convinced the “100th egg” is the United States of America under Islamic rule. Who else could lay waste to the world in the hands of evil men and women?
source
The Muslim Brotherhood in the White House! White House tours apparently compromised their free run of the place! Where is the impeachable offense?
Arif Alikhan – Assistant Secretary for Policy Development for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mohammed Elibiary – Homeland Security Adviser.
Rashad Hussain – Special Envoy to the (OIC) Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Salam al-Marayati – Obama Advisor and founder Muslim Public Affairs Council (and its current executive director.)
Imam Mohamed Magid – Obama’s Sharia Czar – Islamic Society of North America
Eboo Patel – Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships
Some of these terrorists go back to the first month of BHO’s first reign of terror, er … first (mis)-administration … all very bad guys.
Let’s not forget Hillary’s significant other in the State Department – Huma Abedin and her ties to the Egyptian MB where Christians are being persecuted and murdered.
This is where the impeachable offense comes in. The man and his minions solemnly swore to protect and defend the Constitution. He has been actively enabling the imposition of Sharia Law to replace the Constitution that anchors our freedom. With Sharia must come conversion to Islam as the religion of the United States and the world. Some already have an idea who would be the coveted Supreme Caliph.
Accompanying him to impeachment should be every judge that has ruled for the imposition of Sharia on a local basis, for every public, military, and diplomatic official who is actively forcing this other half of the culture of death on us. This should include any official who swore on an early version of the Constitution that preceded the Bill of Rights. They have spent American blood and treasure to remove “inconvenient” Muslim dictators who tolerated Christians and Jews while abandoning the people in the Middle East who looked to us to set them free.
The culture of death has two halves: Islam is a theocracy embracing imposed death or slavery for infidels, and “progressivism” with its complete disdain for the sanctity of human life at all stages, even to sexuality. These too are ultimately incompatible with a predictable outcome.
Statesmen in 1950 were taking into account that the temporal power of Islam may return on a broad scale (and with it, the menace that it may shake off a West that has ceased to be Christian and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power.)
I used to think Iran getting a nuclear weapon was the “100th egg.” Today, I’m almost convinced the “100th egg” is the United States of America under Islamic rule. Who else could lay waste to the world in the hands of evil men and women?
source
Food stamp ban for pedophiles, murders, rapists deemed racist
MAY 29, 2013
An amendment to the Senate farm bill banning convicted murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from receiving food stamps discriminates against African Americans, according to a critic of the effort.
CONTINUE READING
An amendment to the Senate farm bill banning convicted murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from receiving food stamps discriminates against African Americans, according to a critic of the effort.
CONTINUE READING
Ohio Democrat and Obama Supporter Melowese Richardson Convicted of Felony Voter Fraud
MAY 29, 2013
Democrat Melowese Richardson candidly admitted to Cincinnati’s Channel 9 in February that she voted twice in the 2012 election. “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” she proclaimed in the interview.
FULL STORY
Democrat Melowese Richardson candidly admitted to Cincinnati’s Channel 9 in February that she voted twice in the 2012 election. “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” she proclaimed in the interview.
FULL STORY
Gosnell Sister-in-Law Ground Up Baby Parts in Disposal, Gets Probation
MAY 29, 2013
Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell’s sister-in-law was sentenced in court today for her role in the House of Horrors abortion clinic that eventually resulted in Gosnell’s conviction on multiple murder counts.
READ MORE
Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell’s sister-in-law was sentenced in court today for her role in the House of Horrors abortion clinic that eventually resulted in Gosnell’s conviction on multiple murder counts.
READ MORE
Babies Gosnell Killed in Abortion, Infanticide Taken to State Landfills
MAY 29, 2013
What became of many of the babies abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell killed in horrific abortions and infanticides? One researcher has the answers.
Michael Marcavage of Stop Stericycle, a campaign to get the waste management company out of the abortion business, released a report showing many of the bodies of the babies killed eventually made their way to Pennsylvania landfills.
FULL STORY
What became of many of the babies abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell killed in horrific abortions and infanticides? One researcher has the answers.
Michael Marcavage of Stop Stericycle, a campaign to get the waste management company out of the abortion business, released a report showing many of the bodies of the babies killed eventually made their way to Pennsylvania landfills.
FULL STORY
School 'forgets' to teach required course
MAY 29, 2013
With graduation only days away, students at a high school in Gothenburg are outraged after learning they must complete a required course in religion that the school somehow neglected to teach them.
FULL STORY
With graduation only days away, students at a high school in Gothenburg are outraged after learning they must complete a required course in religion that the school somehow neglected to teach them.
FULL STORY
FEAR: Coke leaves Muhammad out of Sweden PR drive
MAY 29, 2013
Coca-Cola said it would have been "too provocative" to include Muhammad in a Swedish publicity campaign in which the US beverage giant replaced its curlicue logo with some of the most common names of young Swedes.
FULL STORY
Coca-Cola said it would have been "too provocative" to include Muhammad in a Swedish publicity campaign in which the US beverage giant replaced its curlicue logo with some of the most common names of young Swedes.
FULL STORY
Helping 'moderate' Islamists will backfire on EU - experts
MAY 29, 2013
The supplies of French and British weapons to Syrian rebels will not only lead to the expansion of the conflict all over the region. Sooner or later these weapons will fire at Europe.
KEEP READING>>
The supplies of French and British weapons to Syrian rebels will not only lead to the expansion of the conflict all over the region. Sooner or later these weapons will fire at Europe.
KEEP READING>>
Immigration-reform deal could pass by August: Pelosi
MAY 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who hits Chicago this week along with President Barack Obama for fund-raising events to benefit Illinois House Democrats, told me Monday that there is enough “general agreement” on bipartisan immigration reform for a measure to pass — and she laid out an aggressive timetable, saying a bill could be sent to Obama to sign by August.
FULL STORY
WASHINGTON — House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who hits Chicago this week along with President Barack Obama for fund-raising events to benefit Illinois House Democrats, told me Monday that there is enough “general agreement” on bipartisan immigration reform for a measure to pass — and she laid out an aggressive timetable, saying a bill could be sent to Obama to sign by August.
FULL STORY
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Is Obama Really As Bad As Nixon When It Comes to Targeting the Press?
MAY 29, 2013
With the AP and Fox News stories, it seems like Obama's record on leakers is finally becoming a mainstream issue. Why did it take until now?
Continue to article>>
With the AP and Fox News stories, it seems like Obama's record on leakers is finally becoming a mainstream issue. Why did it take until now?
Continue to article>>
Turkey said to eye Saudi tanks sale
MAY 29, 2013
Turkish military vehicles firm Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi could sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia, according to a report in Turkey’s press.
READ MORE
Turkish military vehicles firm Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi could sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia, according to a report in Turkey’s press.
READ MORE
Egypt's youth: 'What has the revolution done for us?'
MAY 29, 2013
Egypt's young people are increasingly disillusioned with post-revolutionary life
FULL STORY
Egypt's young people are increasingly disillusioned with post-revolutionary life
FULL STORY
Rep. Michele Bachmann says she will not run for re-election in 2014
MAY 29, 2013
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann says she will not run for re-election in 2014, ending her tenure as the representative from Minnesota's sixth congressional district after four terms.
FULL STORY
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann says she will not run for re-election in 2014, ending her tenure as the representative from Minnesota's sixth congressional district after four terms.
FULL STORY
Obamacare "Navigators": Another Sebelius Snitch Brigade?
MAY 29, 2013
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius controls a $54 million slush fund to hire thousands of "navigators," "in-person assisters" and counselors who will propagandize and enroll Obamacare recipients in government-run health insurance exchanges. This nanny-state navigator corps is the Mother of all Community Organizing Boondoggles. It's also yet another Obama threat to Americans' privacy.
FULL STORY
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius controls a $54 million slush fund to hire thousands of "navigators," "in-person assisters" and counselors who will propagandize and enroll Obamacare recipients in government-run health insurance exchanges. This nanny-state navigator corps is the Mother of all Community Organizing Boondoggles. It's also yet another Obama threat to Americans' privacy.
FULL STORY
HEADLINE: NFL Murders Former Quarterback.
May 29, 2013
Coming to a media outlet near you. EXPECT IT!
Former NFL quarterback Cullen Finnerty was found dead Tuesday night in northwestern Michigan after a solo fishing trip over the holiday long weekend.
"We were walking a good line," Scott Boyd, who was part of one search party that found the body, told the Detroit Free Press. "I squatted down. We had seen some trail. And a girl shouted. She walked right up on it. I thought, 'Oh no.'"
Finnerty, who briefly played for the Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos in 2007-08, had been missing since Sunday night, Lake County Sheriff Robert Hilts said. He confirmed the death at a news conference.
Around 100 current and former players and coaches from his alma mater, Grand Valley State, searched through the swampy woods northeast of Baldwin, Mich., Tuesday afternoon.
Hilts said the 30-year-old ran into the forest after having a "nervous episode" and hadn't been seen since.
"He phoned his wife and explained he was afraid," Hilts told USA Today. "He left his equipment and ran off into the woods."
Finnerty's wife and in-laws immediately drove to his location but all they found was his small pontoon boat.
"We found a fishing pole and that's all," Lake County Undersheriff Dennis Robinson said. "No waders and no fishing equipment."
Finnerty led Grand Valley State to an NCAA Division II championships in 2003, '04 and '06.
source
Coming to a media outlet near you. EXPECT IT!
"We were walking a good line," Scott Boyd, who was part of one search party that found the body, told the Detroit Free Press. "I squatted down. We had seen some trail. And a girl shouted. She walked right up on it. I thought, 'Oh no.'"
Finnerty, who briefly played for the Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos in 2007-08, had been missing since Sunday night, Lake County Sheriff Robert Hilts said. He confirmed the death at a news conference.
Around 100 current and former players and coaches from his alma mater, Grand Valley State, searched through the swampy woods northeast of Baldwin, Mich., Tuesday afternoon.
Hilts said the 30-year-old ran into the forest after having a "nervous episode" and hadn't been seen since.
"He phoned his wife and explained he was afraid," Hilts told USA Today. "He left his equipment and ran off into the woods."
Finnerty's wife and in-laws immediately drove to his location but all they found was his small pontoon boat.
"We found a fishing pole and that's all," Lake County Undersheriff Dennis Robinson said. "No waders and no fishing equipment."
Finnerty led Grand Valley State to an NCAA Division II championships in 2003, '04 and '06.
source
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Column: A nation of co-existing, conflicted values
MAY 28, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration kills four U.S. citizens in counterterrorism drone strikes overseas. It helps pay for the New York Police Department's controversial surveillance program against Muslim Americans. It says a journalist seeking national security information may have been a criminal "co-conspirator."
READ MORE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration kills four U.S. citizens in counterterrorism drone strikes overseas. It helps pay for the New York Police Department's controversial surveillance program against Muslim Americans. It says a journalist seeking national security information may have been a criminal "co-conspirator."
READ MORE
CAIR pushes ‘hijab friendly’ policy in American prisons
MAY 28, 2013
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is working to make American prisons more “hijab-friendly,” according to a report from Al Arabiya.
“I’m working on several pending cases in different states… and I’m in touch with an attorney for the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights,” Nadhira al-Khalili, legal counsel for CAIR, told the Saudi-owned news outlet.
The goal for CAIR is to make the hijab a permissible, official staple of Muslim women’s attire, including for photos, in prisons nationwide.
FULL STORY
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is working to make American prisons more “hijab-friendly,” according to a report from Al Arabiya.
“I’m working on several pending cases in different states… and I’m in touch with an attorney for the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights,” Nadhira al-Khalili, legal counsel for CAIR, told the Saudi-owned news outlet.
The goal for CAIR is to make the hijab a permissible, official staple of Muslim women’s attire, including for photos, in prisons nationwide.
FULL STORY
What’s wrong with MSNBC?
MAY 28, 2013
MSNBC is having ratings troubles. It came in fourth in April, after Fox, CNN, and HLN. Things have not improved in May. May 13-17 was MSNBC’s lowest-rated week since summer of 2006. So what’s wrong?
KEEP READING
MSNBC is having ratings troubles. It came in fourth in April, after Fox, CNN, and HLN. Things have not improved in May. May 13-17 was MSNBC’s lowest-rated week since summer of 2006. So what’s wrong?
KEEP READING
Kickbacks as 'a natural part of business' at Fannie Mae alleged
May 28, 2013
Investigators are looking into assertions by an ex-Fannie Mae worker that kickbacks were 'a natural part of business' at the federal housing finance company.
FULL STORY
Investigators are looking into assertions by an ex-Fannie Mae worker that kickbacks were 'a natural part of business' at the federal housing finance company.
FULL STORY
An IRS Scandal Inseparable from Obamacare
May 28, 2013
The IRS attempts to save Obamacare by unilaterally declaring that it will disregard the law.
Continue Reading>>
The IRS attempts to save Obamacare by unilaterally declaring that it will disregard the law.
Continue Reading>>
Sequester is fed speak for Now Hiring; government posts 27,000 high-paying job openings
May 28, 2013
The budget cuts known as sequestration were supposed to wreak havoc, forcing the shrinking of critical workforces including airport security officers and food inspectors.
But since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people. The median position has a salary topping out at $76,000, and one-fourth of positions pay $113,000 or more, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of federal job listings.
Altogether, the jobs will pay up to $792 million per year. Including job postings that have been open since before sequestration, the government is in the market for 27,000 employees who will make up to $1.8 billion a year.
The jobs posted since sequestration include 2,800 positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 519 at the Indian Health Service and 50 at the Smithsonian Institution.
They also include service jobs seemingly designed to ensure that existing government employees live well.
The Defense Department is recruiting 71 bartenders and 123 waiters. If they worked full-time, these employees would earn more than $3.4 million a year. Nearly half of these positions were first posted after sequestration kicked in.
Nearly 200 positions related to Army-run bowling alleys are open.
“Golf, horseback riding, swimming, bowling, arts & crafts, and sport shooting are just some of things our employees call a job!” say some advertisements for positions open to U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike. One position in Hawaii pays up to $110,000 — plus a 12 percent cost-of-living adjustment — to oversee such recreation facilities.
At the Transportation Security Administration, which said sequestration would result in widespread flight delays, 436 positions, almost all for security officers, have been posted since March 4.
TSA also is hiring for quality assurance, logistics management, information technology and program analyst roles. Each of these jobs can pay more than $137,000 a year.
An email from one federal agency indicated that it was intentionally placing the brunt of the cuts on critical and high-profile positions instead of low-priority jobs to lend credence to the dire warnings it had proffered to Congress in a plea for more funding.
“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘[the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” leaders said.
The Agriculture Department's Forest Service is hiring numerous people at nearly 800 locations, but could not specify how many it would hire in all.
Where agencies said they were hiring “a few” or “many” people for a position, The Times estimated those values at five and 15, respectively, except for Forest Service positions being sought at hundreds of locations.
“As a result of sequestration, the Forest Service does anticipate hiring possibly 1,000 fewer seasonal jobs this year,” spokeswoman Tiffany Holloway said in an email.
Story Continues →
The budget cuts known as sequestration were supposed to wreak havoc, forcing the shrinking of critical workforces including airport security officers and food inspectors.
But since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people. The median position has a salary topping out at $76,000, and one-fourth of positions pay $113,000 or more, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of federal job listings.
Altogether, the jobs will pay up to $792 million per year. Including job postings that have been open since before sequestration, the government is in the market for 27,000 employees who will make up to $1.8 billion a year.
The jobs posted since sequestration include 2,800 positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 519 at the Indian Health Service and 50 at the Smithsonian Institution.
They also include service jobs seemingly designed to ensure that existing government employees live well.
The Defense Department is recruiting 71 bartenders and 123 waiters. If they worked full-time, these employees would earn more than $3.4 million a year. Nearly half of these positions were first posted after sequestration kicked in.
Nearly 200 positions related to Army-run bowling alleys are open.
“Golf, horseback riding, swimming, bowling, arts & crafts, and sport shooting are just some of things our employees call a job!” say some advertisements for positions open to U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike. One position in Hawaii pays up to $110,000 — plus a 12 percent cost-of-living adjustment — to oversee such recreation facilities.
At the Transportation Security Administration, which said sequestration would result in widespread flight delays, 436 positions, almost all for security officers, have been posted since March 4.
TSA also is hiring for quality assurance, logistics management, information technology and program analyst roles. Each of these jobs can pay more than $137,000 a year.
An email from one federal agency indicated that it was intentionally placing the brunt of the cuts on critical and high-profile positions instead of low-priority jobs to lend credence to the dire warnings it had proffered to Congress in a plea for more funding.
“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘[the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” leaders said.
The Agriculture Department's Forest Service is hiring numerous people at nearly 800 locations, but could not specify how many it would hire in all.
Where agencies said they were hiring “a few” or “many” people for a position, The Times estimated those values at five and 15, respectively, except for Forest Service positions being sought at hundreds of locations.
“As a result of sequestration, the Forest Service does anticipate hiring possibly 1,000 fewer seasonal jobs this year,” spokeswoman Tiffany Holloway said in an email.
Story Continues →
How Republican institutions empower extremists
MAY 28, 2013
Politics in the U.S. is steadily devolving into a form of consumer entertainment. The corrosion of basic civic interest has hit the Republican Party particularly hard because of institutional factors that leave the organization bent toward extremes. It will be difficult to stop the GOP from nominating cartoon characters like E.W. Jackson without examining and addressing the institutional characteristics that have made the Party America’s choice for the politically weird.
A glance across the aisle at the Democrats might yield some insights. Ideology is a secondary concern in Democratic politics. Since the mid-19th century, the party has been organized around the skillful manipulation of patronage.
That style of organization has been a weakness at times, blocking efforts to update the party’s policy priorities (think of the Civil Rights battles or the ’68 convention). However, it breeds a rock-hard pragmatism that acts as a persistent check on the extremes.
That structural difference between the Republican and Democratic organizations helps explain why the GOP has been more severely damaged by the crazy wave. In structural terms the Democratic Party is inherently more conservative in the sense that it is more protective of the status quo than the GOP.
Extra-political groups form the backbone of Democratic Party politics. The term refers to organizations with strong political interests, like a state teachers’ union, whose main purpose is not inherently political. These groups cannot live on activism alone. They have jobs to do, jobs which depend on effective government.
In the Democratic Party, you can push ideology all you want until it bumps up against patronage demands. If the machinery of government stops working the impact will be deeply felt among the people who control the party’s ground operations. Government effectiveness matters to interests at the core of Democratic politics.
The difference this makes can be seen by comparing the styles of two predominantly Democratic organizations, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women. NOW is an issue advocacy group. Its grass-roots activities consist mostly of tracking legislation of concern and mobilizing members to voice support or opposition.
Planned Parenthood operates women’s health clinics all over the country. Those clinics rely heavily on public funding and often provide abortion services in areas that are deeply hostile to Democratic politics. While NOW’s structure requires it to motivate a base to action, Planned Parenthood must do more than influence politics. It has to perform a function in the day to day world that depends heavily on public support.
Groups like NOW can afford to be as unreasonable as their most generous donors will tolerate. The organization itself is not threatened by any failure to accomplish a practical objective. Advocacy groups feed on controversy. Achieving their policy goals would be like a dog catching the car.
NOW, for example, took a hard line on the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Alito, threatening to campaign against otherwise choice-friendly Senators from both parties who refused to obstruct his nomination. Planned Parenthood recognized the obnoxious irresponsibility of subverting the democratic process purely to activate a political base.
They backed down from a filibuster of the Alito nomination, angering activists on the extremes but preserving their vital policy influence on Capitol Hill. Planned Parenthood is no more “moderate” on the issues than NOW, but they are forced to be vastly more pragmatic.
The dominating presence of extra-political organizations like unions, Planned Parenthood, and other groups performing public functions checks the pressure from Democratic activists to pursue irrational extremes. The GOP political universe, by contrast, is made up of dozens of major advocacy groups comparable to NOW, but Republicans have almost nothing like Planned Parenthood or the unions.
There are hardly any traditional Republican interests, apart from perhaps Chambers of Commerce, who have a vested material interest in government effectiveness. That leaves no structural force to press back against the entertainers who would motivate turnout in primaries and caucuses with appeals to rabid Id.
There are sensible people involved in Republican politics who sacrifice time they could devote to family or work to participate in politics out of a sense of civic duty. The game is rigged against them. They are outgunned and constantly on the retreat. They have been walking away from day to day engagement for decades when they aren’t being actively chased to the margins.
We can talk about solving the problem by encouraging greater grassroots participation by “moderates,” but that is a fantasy. The kind of people who care about rational, pragmatic political outcomes are in large part the same people who are busy taking care of their families, their businesses, and the increasingly intense demands of successful American life.
Even if they, somewhat heroically, chose to carve out time from their jobs and their kids to battle for months for the opportunity to spend all day at Virginia’s GOP nominating convention, would they ever choose to do it again? How many of the sensible people who form the backbone of American life would consistently volunteer to spend weekends in the crowd that nominated E.W. Jackson?
This has created a rift between the Republican activist base and the Republican electoral base. If the mechanics of Republican politics continues to favor people with more time than sense, we’ll nominate fewer and fewer candidates that general election voters will accept. Worse, the traditional core values of the conservative movement will be swamped beneath layers of paranoid muck.
Replicating the Democrats’ emphasis on patronage is not the answer. In fact, that tactic is already losing its punch, likely exposing the Democratic Party very soon to the same forces of weirdness that have ravaged the GOP. The best structural response lies in adapting Republican nominating and decision-making practices to make them open to broader involvement by otherwise busy successful people ― the GOP’s alienated, traditional electoral base.
Here are a few ideas that might help.
1) Abandon the sanctity of the nominating process
There is little hope for meaningful improvement in the Republican Party until pragmatic conservatives openly reject the extremes. That means organizing internal institutions that will allow rationalists to coordinate general election challenges to outrageous nominees. It is a decade too late to work this out behind the scenes in conventions or in local party meetings. We have to leverage the frustration of general election voters to force a change.
2) Forge new institutions that support pragmatic goals
Rational conservatives need organizations that allow them coordinate their activities and lend material support to candidates who would challenge the extremes. Jon Huntsman just launched one such effort. We need hundreds more.
3) Drain the influence from deeply anti-representative organs like caucuses and conventions
After weakening the hold of extremists by taking decisions directly to general election voters, use the influence gained from the process to strip power from unrepresentative processes. Caucuses are crazy-factories. They require far more investment of personal time than most reasonably competent people in the prime of life can afford. Our emphasis on in-person institutions is constructing a Republic of the Bizarre. We must blunt their influence.
4) End the practice of primary runoffs
A primary is already a low-turnout process. Primary runoffs are a cruel joke. Without the anti-representative dynamics of a runoff, David Dewhurst would be Texas’s Senator.
5) Explore communications technology to expand participation
There is a quality to in-person political involvement that cannot be replicated online. That said, this is not the 19th century. People do not have months of downtime waiting for the harvest season. Our in-person grassroots institutions are no longer the engines of quality representation that Tocqueville observed. We need to explore alternatives enabled by communications technology that can keep people connected with a smaller investment of personal time.
Solving the GOP’s nutjob problem is more than a partisan issue. The techniques that succeed in restoring the Republican Party’s sanity may provide the key to adapting representative government to succeed in a new century.
Source: Washington Times
Politics in the U.S. is steadily devolving into a form of consumer entertainment. The corrosion of basic civic interest has hit the Republican Party particularly hard because of institutional factors that leave the organization bent toward extremes. It will be difficult to stop the GOP from nominating cartoon characters like E.W. Jackson without examining and addressing the institutional characteristics that have made the Party America’s choice for the politically weird.
A glance across the aisle at the Democrats might yield some insights. Ideology is a secondary concern in Democratic politics. Since the mid-19th century, the party has been organized around the skillful manipulation of patronage.
That style of organization has been a weakness at times, blocking efforts to update the party’s policy priorities (think of the Civil Rights battles or the ’68 convention). However, it breeds a rock-hard pragmatism that acts as a persistent check on the extremes.
That structural difference between the Republican and Democratic organizations helps explain why the GOP has been more severely damaged by the crazy wave. In structural terms the Democratic Party is inherently more conservative in the sense that it is more protective of the status quo than the GOP.
Extra-political groups form the backbone of Democratic Party politics. The term refers to organizations with strong political interests, like a state teachers’ union, whose main purpose is not inherently political. These groups cannot live on activism alone. They have jobs to do, jobs which depend on effective government.
In the Democratic Party, you can push ideology all you want until it bumps up against patronage demands. If the machinery of government stops working the impact will be deeply felt among the people who control the party’s ground operations. Government effectiveness matters to interests at the core of Democratic politics.
The difference this makes can be seen by comparing the styles of two predominantly Democratic organizations, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women. NOW is an issue advocacy group. Its grass-roots activities consist mostly of tracking legislation of concern and mobilizing members to voice support or opposition.
Planned Parenthood operates women’s health clinics all over the country. Those clinics rely heavily on public funding and often provide abortion services in areas that are deeply hostile to Democratic politics. While NOW’s structure requires it to motivate a base to action, Planned Parenthood must do more than influence politics. It has to perform a function in the day to day world that depends heavily on public support.
Groups like NOW can afford to be as unreasonable as their most generous donors will tolerate. The organization itself is not threatened by any failure to accomplish a practical objective. Advocacy groups feed on controversy. Achieving their policy goals would be like a dog catching the car.
NOW, for example, took a hard line on the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Alito, threatening to campaign against otherwise choice-friendly Senators from both parties who refused to obstruct his nomination. Planned Parenthood recognized the obnoxious irresponsibility of subverting the democratic process purely to activate a political base.
They backed down from a filibuster of the Alito nomination, angering activists on the extremes but preserving their vital policy influence on Capitol Hill. Planned Parenthood is no more “moderate” on the issues than NOW, but they are forced to be vastly more pragmatic.
The dominating presence of extra-political organizations like unions, Planned Parenthood, and other groups performing public functions checks the pressure from Democratic activists to pursue irrational extremes. The GOP political universe, by contrast, is made up of dozens of major advocacy groups comparable to NOW, but Republicans have almost nothing like Planned Parenthood or the unions.
There are hardly any traditional Republican interests, apart from perhaps Chambers of Commerce, who have a vested material interest in government effectiveness. That leaves no structural force to press back against the entertainers who would motivate turnout in primaries and caucuses with appeals to rabid Id.
There are sensible people involved in Republican politics who sacrifice time they could devote to family or work to participate in politics out of a sense of civic duty. The game is rigged against them. They are outgunned and constantly on the retreat. They have been walking away from day to day engagement for decades when they aren’t being actively chased to the margins.
We can talk about solving the problem by encouraging greater grassroots participation by “moderates,” but that is a fantasy. The kind of people who care about rational, pragmatic political outcomes are in large part the same people who are busy taking care of their families, their businesses, and the increasingly intense demands of successful American life.
Even if they, somewhat heroically, chose to carve out time from their jobs and their kids to battle for months for the opportunity to spend all day at Virginia’s GOP nominating convention, would they ever choose to do it again? How many of the sensible people who form the backbone of American life would consistently volunteer to spend weekends in the crowd that nominated E.W. Jackson?
This has created a rift between the Republican activist base and the Republican electoral base. If the mechanics of Republican politics continues to favor people with more time than sense, we’ll nominate fewer and fewer candidates that general election voters will accept. Worse, the traditional core values of the conservative movement will be swamped beneath layers of paranoid muck.
Replicating the Democrats’ emphasis on patronage is not the answer. In fact, that tactic is already losing its punch, likely exposing the Democratic Party very soon to the same forces of weirdness that have ravaged the GOP. The best structural response lies in adapting Republican nominating and decision-making practices to make them open to broader involvement by otherwise busy successful people ― the GOP’s alienated, traditional electoral base.
Here are a few ideas that might help.
1) Abandon the sanctity of the nominating process
There is little hope for meaningful improvement in the Republican Party until pragmatic conservatives openly reject the extremes. That means organizing internal institutions that will allow rationalists to coordinate general election challenges to outrageous nominees. It is a decade too late to work this out behind the scenes in conventions or in local party meetings. We have to leverage the frustration of general election voters to force a change.
2) Forge new institutions that support pragmatic goals
Rational conservatives need organizations that allow them coordinate their activities and lend material support to candidates who would challenge the extremes. Jon Huntsman just launched one such effort. We need hundreds more.
3) Drain the influence from deeply anti-representative organs like caucuses and conventions
After weakening the hold of extremists by taking decisions directly to general election voters, use the influence gained from the process to strip power from unrepresentative processes. Caucuses are crazy-factories. They require far more investment of personal time than most reasonably competent people in the prime of life can afford. Our emphasis on in-person institutions is constructing a Republic of the Bizarre. We must blunt their influence.
4) End the practice of primary runoffs
A primary is already a low-turnout process. Primary runoffs are a cruel joke. Without the anti-representative dynamics of a runoff, David Dewhurst would be Texas’s Senator.
5) Explore communications technology to expand participation
There is a quality to in-person political involvement that cannot be replicated online. That said, this is not the 19th century. People do not have months of downtime waiting for the harvest season. Our in-person grassroots institutions are no longer the engines of quality representation that Tocqueville observed. We need to explore alternatives enabled by communications technology that can keep people connected with a smaller investment of personal time.
Solving the GOP’s nutjob problem is more than a partisan issue. The techniques that succeed in restoring the Republican Party’s sanity may provide the key to adapting representative government to succeed in a new century.
Source: Washington Times
Obama's Most Dangerous 'Enemies' are Being Targeted
MAY 28, 2013
There is a pattern emerging in the Obama Presidency. He is at war with reality; his greatest enemies are facts. And he has been targeting for years a small group of people whose duty is to expose the truth. Their loyalty runs to the citizenry and not to Barack Obama. They are not Republicans and they are certainly not journalists. And Obama has been trying to muzzle them. One man stands in the way.
Inspectors General (IG) are government employees who are responsible for ferreting out mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the federal government. The Barack Obama presidency has provided them with a target-rich environment. They are responsible for uncovering a wide range of Obama failures.
These include:
There is a pattern emerging in the Obama Presidency. He is at war with reality; his greatest enemies are facts. And he has been targeting for years a small group of people whose duty is to expose the truth. Their loyalty runs to the citizenry and not to Barack Obama. They are not Republicans and they are certainly not journalists. And Obama has been trying to muzzle them. One man stands in the way.
Inspectors General (IG) are government employees who are responsible for ferreting out mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the federal government. The Barack Obama presidency has provided them with a target-rich environment. They are responsible for uncovering a wide range of Obama failures.
These include:
Google cashes in on hate videos: Internet giant puts ads alongside thousands of terror rants on YouTube
MAY 28, 2013
Adverts for reputable companies feature alongside terror videos
Companies have little control over where adverts are placed on website
Major advertiser said 'Google have a lot to answer for'
YouTube has more than 100 videos of hate preacher Anjem Choudary
FULL STORY
Adverts for reputable companies feature alongside terror videos
Companies have little control over where adverts are placed on website
Major advertiser said 'Google have a lot to answer for'
YouTube has more than 100 videos of hate preacher Anjem Choudary
FULL STORY
Obama’s Dangerous Contempt for the Rule of Law
May 28, 2013
Whatever the investigation into misconduct at the Internal Revenue Service reveals, we already have all the evidence we need to understand President Barack Obama’s fundamental attitude toward the rule of law. That evidence is right there in the public record, and what it shows is indifference and contempt. READ MORE
Whatever the investigation into misconduct at the Internal Revenue Service reveals, we already have all the evidence we need to understand President Barack Obama’s fundamental attitude toward the rule of law. That evidence is right there in the public record, and what it shows is indifference and contempt. READ MORE
Obama so busy not knowing about Benghazi scandal he also missed IRS mess
May 28, 2013
Fallon: At a recent fundraiser Obama noted a shortage of common sense in Washington. Then, the people who had just paid $5,000 per plate applauded.
Leno: Not looking good for President Obama with all these scandals. Today, his teleprompter took the Fifth.
Conan: A new report says someone close to Obama knew about the IRS scandal and kept his mouth shut. In other words, we can rule out Joe Biden.
Conan: England is sending its first astronaut to the International Space Station. He’s the first astronaut looking forward to the food.
Conan: Lamborghini is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Lamborghini is so freaked out by turning 50 that it just bought itself a Lamborghini.
Leno: All these scandals are looking really bad for President Obama. So bad that people in Kenya are now saying he's 100% American.
Leno: Mitch McConnell says Obama fosters a ‘culture of intimidation.’ Seriously? Is anyone intimidated by Obama? He can’t even keep Joe Biden in line.
Leno: North Korea fires six missiles recently trying to get the U.S. to pay them to stop. Shows how isolated North Korea is. They still think we have money.
Letterman: Rough times nowadays for Obama. The Big Benghazi scandal. The Big IRS scandal The Big phone-tapping scandal. Now he's also got to replace all four 'American Idol' judges.
Letterman: New York City’s new bike-borrowing program. Get a bike here. Drop it off there. People think it's new. No. It's like a Kardashian husband.
Conan: Yahoo's CEO, who just bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion, says she will not remove porn from the site. Asked why, she said, “Because I don’t want to lose $1.1 billion."
Conan: A Georgia college student feared his parents would be angry for his F in English. He faked his own kidnapping. However, the parents figured it out when the ransom note said, “We Has Your Son.”
Leno: President Obama told Morehouse College graduates they have a great future ahead. Unless of course, they want jobs. Then they're totally screwed.
Leno: Mary J Blige has been slapped with a $3.4 million tax bill by the IRS. I did not know she was a Tea Party member.
READ MORE
 |
| AP (10 days after learning Benghazi deaths were really terrorism, Obama tells the U.N. an anti-Islam American video was responsible.) |
Fallon: At a recent fundraiser Obama noted a shortage of common sense in Washington. Then, the people who had just paid $5,000 per plate applauded.
Leno: Not looking good for President Obama with all these scandals. Today, his teleprompter took the Fifth.
Conan: A new report says someone close to Obama knew about the IRS scandal and kept his mouth shut. In other words, we can rule out Joe Biden.
Conan: England is sending its first astronaut to the International Space Station. He’s the first astronaut looking forward to the food.
Conan: Lamborghini is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Lamborghini is so freaked out by turning 50 that it just bought itself a Lamborghini.
Leno: All these scandals are looking really bad for President Obama. So bad that people in Kenya are now saying he's 100% American.
Leno: Mitch McConnell says Obama fosters a ‘culture of intimidation.’ Seriously? Is anyone intimidated by Obama? He can’t even keep Joe Biden in line.
Leno: North Korea fires six missiles recently trying to get the U.S. to pay them to stop. Shows how isolated North Korea is. They still think we have money.
Letterman: Rough times nowadays for Obama. The Big Benghazi scandal. The Big IRS scandal The Big phone-tapping scandal. Now he's also got to replace all four 'American Idol' judges.
Letterman: New York City’s new bike-borrowing program. Get a bike here. Drop it off there. People think it's new. No. It's like a Kardashian husband.
Conan: Yahoo's CEO, who just bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion, says she will not remove porn from the site. Asked why, she said, “Because I don’t want to lose $1.1 billion."
Conan: A Georgia college student feared his parents would be angry for his F in English. He faked his own kidnapping. However, the parents figured it out when the ransom note said, “We Has Your Son.”
Leno: President Obama told Morehouse College graduates they have a great future ahead. Unless of course, they want jobs. Then they're totally screwed.
Leno: Mary J Blige has been slapped with a $3.4 million tax bill by the IRS. I did not know she was a Tea Party member.
READ MORE
New Evidence Shows Trayvon's Life Unraveling
May 28, 2013
This past Thursday, George Zimmerman's attorneys released new evidence relevant to the upcoming trial of their client on a second-degree murder charge for the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
The Martin family attorneys say the evidence is irrelevant. They are wrong. It is damning. The text messages and photos from Martin's cell phone tell a story wildly at odds with the one the State of Florida and the media have been peddling for more than a year, but one altogether truer and sadder.
FULL STORY
This past Thursday, George Zimmerman's attorneys released new evidence relevant to the upcoming trial of their client on a second-degree murder charge for the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
The Martin family attorneys say the evidence is irrelevant. They are wrong. It is damning. The text messages and photos from Martin's cell phone tell a story wildly at odds with the one the State of Florida and the media have been peddling for more than a year, but one altogether truer and sadder.
FULL STORY
Stupid
“You’re stupid,” is not something even his most severe critics usually say to President Barack Obama. But on Friday morning I picked up the Wall Street Journal and learned that the president had given a speech about the war on terror saying, “This war, like all wars, must end.”
That story was at the top of the front page. Immediately below was a photograph of flowers being laid at a makeshift memorial near the Woolwich Royal Arsenal where machine gunner Lee Rigby was hacked to death by terrorists.
This war, like all wars, must end when someone wins it. The president—speaking at the National Defense University, of all places—said, “the core of al Qaeda . . . is on the path to defeat.” And so it may be. But meanwhile, the core of al Qaeda, its aims and its beliefs, is also on the path to Boston and London and any number of other places.
On page 7 of Friday’s Journal was the headline, “Suicide Bombings in Niger Linked to Mali Islamist Group.” On page 9 was a report of terrorist Hezbollah militias aiding the terrorist Assad regime in attacking the rebel-held Syrian city of Qusayr where the rebels themselves are allied with yet more Islamic terrorists. And on pages 4 and 8 were more bad tidings from that perpetrator, abettor, and friend of terrorism, Iran. Iranian fundamentalists, in the chokehold they have on the country’s political system, are improving their grip. And, “according to current and former U.S. officials,” Iran has “escalated a campaign of cyberassaults against U.S. corporations. . . . The hackers were able to gain access to control-system software that could allow them to manipulate oil or gas pipelines.”
All that on a slow news day.
In 2001 Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a declaration of war on terrorists and nations that harbor them. In his speech the president said, “I look forward to engaging . . . in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal the AUMF’s mandate.”
I like the president’s use of the word “efforts” here, as though he’s merely trying to be stupid. He doesn’t need to try. Earlier in the week he signed new policy guidance for drone strikes. In the future we will use lethal drones only on terrorists who are a “continuing and imminent threat to the American people” and not on terrorists who are a “significant threat to U.S. interests.” Although, assuming tremendously stupid efforts will be made to tell the two kinds of terrorists apart, maybe I’m wrong about the president not needing to try. The policy guidance also stipulates that there “must be a near certainty” that civilians won’t be killed or injured in a drone strike. Imagine how stupid a WWII Army Air Corps briefing officer would have had to be to say that to his B-17 pilots.
Maybe we pundits don’t tell President Obama, “You’re stupid,” because we are proudly showing off our sensitivity to the negative stereotypes that hurtful language engenders in a way that we didn’t feel was necessary when we were telling Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush, “You’re stupid,” even though actors, WASPs, and Texans are burdened with their fair share of negative lamebrain stereotypes.
More likely it’s because we pundits prize signs of intelligence. We take every opportunity to display our own signs, and President Obama exhibits the same wordy, wonky, academic intelligence indicators that we do, so we don’t call him stupid.
As if the two things were mutually exclusive. I know quite a few fellow members of the news analysis and commentary business, and I have it from the highest-placed sources, on the record, that each and every one of our children is a genius. And yet, if we pundits were to gather together our sons and daughters, during their teenage years, and close them for a night in a dimly lit room full of beer and drugs and comfy futons, I can assure you that evidence of stupidity would be found the next morning.
But the most likely reason that we don’t call President Obama stupid is that it’s such a cul-de-sac of a word. Stupid gives the pundit nothing to perform punditry upon. Call a man ignorant and you have license to show the world your vast fund of knowledge and wise him up. Call a man misguided and you transform your column or blog post or TV appearance into a valuable and beneficent German shepherd with a handle on its back and you lead the poor soul in his blindness. Call a man, best of all, wicked and you get to don the sacramental vestments, climb into the pulpit and thunder forth with such a sermon as to bring him weeping to the font of righteousness or cause the Lord God Almighty to strike him with a thunderbolt in his pew or something fun like that. But call a man stupid and . . . there it is.
And there it is: Dopey stimulus, obtuse bailout, noodle-headed Obamacare, half-wit Dodd-Frank, damfool IRS Tea Party crashers, AP and Fox News beset by oafish peeping Toms and the Benghazi tale told by an idiot. One could go on. Stupid is a great force in human affairs. And the great force has a commander in chief.
source
Death penalty by suffocation passes Papua New Guinea parliament
May 28, 2013
The nation's parliament has passed amendments to its criminal code that will allow death sentences for rape, murder and robbery.
Approved ways people can be executed include lethal injection, hanging, firing squad, electrocution and medical death by "deprivation of oxygen".
FULL STORY
The nation's parliament has passed amendments to its criminal code that will allow death sentences for rape, murder and robbery.
Approved ways people can be executed include lethal injection, hanging, firing squad, electrocution and medical death by "deprivation of oxygen".
FULL STORY
Obama: ‘God Has a Plan and ... We’re an Instrument of His Will’
May 28, 2013
President Barack Obama traveled on Sunday to Moore, Okla., where a massive tornado caused devastation last Monday. There he told Americans that God has a plan and it is important we recognize we are instruments of His will.
Full Story>>
President Barack Obama traveled on Sunday to Moore, Okla., where a massive tornado caused devastation last Monday. There he told Americans that God has a plan and it is important we recognize we are instruments of His will.
Full Story>>
Crazed extremists batter prison guard in assault sparked by death of Lee Rigby
May 28, 2013
Woolwich attack: The terrified officer, in his 30s, was finally freed by a specialist riot squad who stormed the room where he was held for five hours and beaten mercilessly
FULL STORY
FULL STORY
Liberal Article: What If the Next President Is Even Worse?
May 28, 2013
George W. Bush in 2001 declared war on a tactic (terrorism), and empowered Big Brother to tap phones, launch drones and indefinitely imprison people without due process.
Barack Obama in 2008 declared those Bush policies an overreach, and pledged to curb drone strikes, protect media freedoms, and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Instead, he escalated drone strikes and spied on the media. Gitmo is still open for its grim business.
These are facts. And yet, they are distorted by extreme and narrow-minded partisans, supporters of both Bush and Obama.
Continue to article>>
George W. Bush in 2001 declared war on a tactic (terrorism), and empowered Big Brother to tap phones, launch drones and indefinitely imprison people without due process.
Barack Obama in 2008 declared those Bush policies an overreach, and pledged to curb drone strikes, protect media freedoms, and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Instead, he escalated drone strikes and spied on the media. Gitmo is still open for its grim business.
These are facts. And yet, they are distorted by extreme and narrow-minded partisans, supporters of both Bush and Obama.
Continue to article>>
IRS gives Fla. Miccosukee Indians $170mil tax bill
May 28, 2013
Is this an attack on a Native American tribe’s “sovereignty?”
The Internal Revenue Service, under attack in Washington for alleged political favoritism during the past couple of years, has assessed the Miccosukee Indians of Florida with a $170 million tax bill for failing to report and withhold taxes from its distribution of gambling profits to tribal members.
The Miccosukee Indians operate a successful casino in the west Miami-Dade County of Florida. They use casino profits to distribute funds to tribal members.
The IRS has ruled those funds are really income to recipients and the tribal leadership should be taking out federal withholding taxes on that money. The tribe disagrees and that forms the basis for the dispute.
“The Miccosukee people will continue to pay all applicable lawful taxes, as they always have, and we will continue our efforts to find a fair and workable solution to this dispute,” Miccosukee Chairman Colley Billie wrote in a statement to the Miami Herald newspaper.
Under federal law, the Miccosukee Tribe is considered a sovereign nation, meaning the entity itself is not subject to taxes. But what about the tribal members?
In the opinion of some members of the legal community, tribal members, just like all other American citizens, are responsible for reporting income and paying taxes. Therefore, the tribe, in making these distributions, must withhold taxes on the income and turn the deductions over to the IRS.
In 2011, when this issue arose, Bernardo Roman III wrote the IRS saying that the distributions at issue are not subject to federal income taxation and therefore not subject to federal reporting and withholding under applicable Supreme Court precedent.
But the problem is expected to escalate.
So far, the IRS says the tax liabilities cover the years 2000 to 2005. Auditors are now auditing the distributions that cover the years 2006 to 2010.
source
The Internal Revenue Service, under attack in Washington for alleged political favoritism during the past couple of years, has assessed the Miccosukee Indians of Florida with a $170 million tax bill for failing to report and withhold taxes from its distribution of gambling profits to tribal members.
The Miccosukee Indians operate a successful casino in the west Miami-Dade County of Florida. They use casino profits to distribute funds to tribal members.
The IRS has ruled those funds are really income to recipients and the tribal leadership should be taking out federal withholding taxes on that money. The tribe disagrees and that forms the basis for the dispute.
“The Miccosukee people will continue to pay all applicable lawful taxes, as they always have, and we will continue our efforts to find a fair and workable solution to this dispute,” Miccosukee Chairman Colley Billie wrote in a statement to the Miami Herald newspaper.
Under federal law, the Miccosukee Tribe is considered a sovereign nation, meaning the entity itself is not subject to taxes. But what about the tribal members?
In the opinion of some members of the legal community, tribal members, just like all other American citizens, are responsible for reporting income and paying taxes. Therefore, the tribe, in making these distributions, must withhold taxes on the income and turn the deductions over to the IRS.
In 2011, when this issue arose, Bernardo Roman III wrote the IRS saying that the distributions at issue are not subject to federal income taxation and therefore not subject to federal reporting and withholding under applicable Supreme Court precedent.
But the problem is expected to escalate.
So far, the IRS says the tax liabilities cover the years 2000 to 2005. Auditors are now auditing the distributions that cover the years 2006 to 2010.
source
The VanderSlooting of America
May 28, 2013
We have put together what might be called a basic “timeline of tyranny.” A timeline that connects the dots of IRS behavior in the Obama administration not just to the specifics of the IG’s timeline, but to other events of a similar nature. Events that set the stage for what was to come, and most importantly events that illustrate the mindset of the American Left when it comes to free speech, to dissent — and how that mindset plays out when married not just to money but to a perceived or very real access to serious government power.
READ MORE
We have put together what might be called a basic “timeline of tyranny.” A timeline that connects the dots of IRS behavior in the Obama administration not just to the specifics of the IG’s timeline, but to other events of a similar nature. Events that set the stage for what was to come, and most importantly events that illustrate the mindset of the American Left when it comes to free speech, to dissent — and how that mindset plays out when married not just to money but to a perceived or very real access to serious government power.
READ MORE
Airlines speak out against proposed taxes on air travel
May 28, 2013
The Obama Administration is proposing a hike in taxes on air travel that airlines say will hurt the economy.
FULL STORY>>
The Obama Administration is proposing a hike in taxes on air travel that airlines say will hurt the economy.
FULL STORY>>
Another Cost of Obamacare: Biotech
May 28, 2013
John Ransom
..According to Plunkett Research, Ltd in 2010 it cost $1.2 billion to develop each and every biologic drug. That’s because while the government currently tracks 124,932 trials for new drug application in 179 foreign countries, only a tiny fraction of those drugs will ever see the marketplace...
FULL STORY
John Ransom
..According to Plunkett Research, Ltd in 2010 it cost $1.2 billion to develop each and every biologic drug. That’s because while the government currently tracks 124,932 trials for new drug application in 179 foreign countries, only a tiny fraction of those drugs will ever see the marketplace...
FULL STORY
'The world is in a state of financial war' - Russian presidential advisor
5.28.2013
Vedomosti reports that Sergey Glaziev, the economic mastermind behind the Eurasian Union, sent an official report to Kremlin, stating the necessity of a radical revamp of Russia’s economic policy in the wake of the second wave of global economic crisis. “Unknown sources” have provided the media with the contents of this highly controversial document, igniting a fierce debate in the press and blogosphere.
Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_18/The-world-is-in-a-state-of-financial-war-Russian-presidential-advisor/
Glaziev’s report features apocalyptic predictions in regard to the state of the world economy but the most interesting part of the text refers to the so-called “currency wars”. Basically, one of the most influential advisors of the Russian president accuses both the US and EU of “legalized aggression” through unbridled monetary emission. Vedomosti cites several fragments from the report, “As a key point of their anti-crisis policy, they are refinancing their banks using negative real interest rates” and meanwhile “1.5 trillion dollars, 1.2 trillion euros and comparable amounts of yen and pounds are used to finance debt pyramids and acquire real assets across the world”. Western banks are accused of blocking their debtors in “debt traps”, with the ultimate goal of “obtaining political control” and “seizing the real assets” of the debtors.
Sergey Glaziev considers that such a policy is actually a form of legalized aggression and that the world is in a state of financial war. According to the conclusions of this report Russia “cannot win this war” without some major changes in its own economic strategy. Vedomosti reports that Vladimir Putin assembled a crack team of experts from Russian Academy of Science with a mission to create a brand new economic policy. Glaziev is reported to be the team’s liaison in the president’s administration, while the team itself is led by Alexander Nekipelov, a member of Rosneft’s board of directors.
According to the preliminary conclusions of this team, a radical revamp of Russia’s economic policy could lead to spectacular results. Glaziev’s report indicates the following key elements required for sustainable growth: radical increase of the savings rate, investment in breakthrough technologies (up to 4% of the GDP), and creation of a strong and self-sufficient banking system. Although the nation’s economy is considered a top priority, national problems cannot be solved without mitigating some of the global risks. According to the Russian media, the report contains a warning regarding the risks of a global military conflict, “The conservation logic of the current financial and political system leads to a further escalation of military and political tensions, including the start of major war”. There are solutions mentioned which serve as recommendations to avoid this outcome. A reform of the global financial system, spearheaded by Russia, is reported to be one of those solutions. It remains to be seen whether this initiative will gain support from other developing countries.
source
Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_18/The-world-is-in-a-state-of-financial-war-Russian-presidential-advisor/
Glaziev’s report features apocalyptic predictions in regard to the state of the world economy but the most interesting part of the text refers to the so-called “currency wars”. Basically, one of the most influential advisors of the Russian president accuses both the US and EU of “legalized aggression” through unbridled monetary emission. Vedomosti cites several fragments from the report, “As a key point of their anti-crisis policy, they are refinancing their banks using negative real interest rates” and meanwhile “1.5 trillion dollars, 1.2 trillion euros and comparable amounts of yen and pounds are used to finance debt pyramids and acquire real assets across the world”. Western banks are accused of blocking their debtors in “debt traps”, with the ultimate goal of “obtaining political control” and “seizing the real assets” of the debtors.
Sergey Glaziev considers that such a policy is actually a form of legalized aggression and that the world is in a state of financial war. According to the conclusions of this report Russia “cannot win this war” without some major changes in its own economic strategy. Vedomosti reports that Vladimir Putin assembled a crack team of experts from Russian Academy of Science with a mission to create a brand new economic policy. Glaziev is reported to be the team’s liaison in the president’s administration, while the team itself is led by Alexander Nekipelov, a member of Rosneft’s board of directors.
According to the preliminary conclusions of this team, a radical revamp of Russia’s economic policy could lead to spectacular results. Glaziev’s report indicates the following key elements required for sustainable growth: radical increase of the savings rate, investment in breakthrough technologies (up to 4% of the GDP), and creation of a strong and self-sufficient banking system. Although the nation’s economy is considered a top priority, national problems cannot be solved without mitigating some of the global risks. According to the Russian media, the report contains a warning regarding the risks of a global military conflict, “The conservation logic of the current financial and political system leads to a further escalation of military and political tensions, including the start of major war”. There are solutions mentioned which serve as recommendations to avoid this outcome. A reform of the global financial system, spearheaded by Russia, is reported to be one of those solutions. It remains to be seen whether this initiative will gain support from other developing countries.
source
World war brew: J.C. Penney places huge billboard advert over Interstate Highway for kettle 'that looks just like Hitler'
5.28.2013
By Suzannah Hills
Kettle features on huge billboard over 405 Interstate Highway in California
Commuters claim the kettle has a striking resemblance to the Nazi leader
Retailer J.C. Penney may want to rethink the design of their new kettle after a string of customers complained it looks remarkably like Hitler.
The retailer advertised the new kettle - which is exclusively available in its stores - on a huge billboard over the 405 Interstate Highway in southern California.
But rather than being tempted into buying new kitchen equipment, commuters driving along the route near Culver City found themselves instantly reminded of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Keep Reading>>
By Suzannah Hills
Kettle features on huge billboard over 405 Interstate Highway in California
Commuters claim the kettle has a striking resemblance to the Nazi leader
The retailer advertised the new kettle - which is exclusively available in its stores - on a huge billboard over the 405 Interstate Highway in southern California.
But rather than being tempted into buying new kitchen equipment, commuters driving along the route near Culver City found themselves instantly reminded of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Keep Reading>>
10 Musicians Who Should Be Blacklisted By Conservatives
5.28.2013
John Hawkins | May 28, 2013
"Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have." -- Saul Alinsky
Republicans spend too much time complaining about liberals boycotting the advertisers on conservatives’ shows and not enough time doing the same thing to the Left. If movie stars trash conservatives, we should be very publicly telling people we're not going to their films and we should take credit if they bomb. If a corporate CEO embraces liberalism, don't buy that company’s products and tell the world why you're doing it. Let him explain to his board of directors why standing up for gay marriage or abortion was worth losing millions of dollars. Seventy percent of the country is Christian, roughly half the country supports the Republican Party and forty percent of Americans are conservative. There are a lot of businesses, artists and musicians who simply cannot survive without the support of people like us. The only reason they dare to trash us or publicly support people who hate our guts is because we all too often shrug our shoulders and then willingly hand over our money to people who despise us.
When it comes to musicians who attack conservatives, Christians, Republicans, America -- or alternately, embrace the Left, don't give them your money. Don't buy their albums or their T-shirts and don’t go to their shows. Even if you do like their music, don't pay for it and don't talk it up publicly. Fans are oxygen for these people -- starve them of it and let other musicians start to worry about the reaction if they go after us.
That's not unfair; it's just restoring balance. People who rely on the goodwill of the general public shouldn't be trashing the people who pay their bills. Artists should be flattered, not outraged when Republican politicians want to use their songs. Conservatives in the music industry shouldn't be cowed into silence by threats and abuse while liberal musicians smear the conservatives, Christians, Republicans and patriots who buy their records with no repercussions.
Because the musicians have gotten away with doing fundraisers for the Democrats, trashing us without paying a price and generally crapping all over everything we believe in while they trumpet liberalism to the skies, it would take an entire website to catalogue everyone who deserves to be on this list, but here are 10 to start with. It's a free country and these musicians can say what they want, but consumers can also spend their money where they want, too. Let some of these musicians start to see the impact of trashing us on their bottom lines and you will be surprised at how fast attitudes will begin to change.
1) "Kill those f*cking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives Kill those f*cking Yankees who ordered them to torture Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers Kill them all slowly and painfully." -- Psy
2) "My main concern is that (The Tea Party is) really fear-based. What’s coming out of the Tea Party most often, especially if you go onto YouTube, and you see some of the interviews with these people who really don’t even know what the issues are, they’re just swept up in the fear of it and the anger of it. They’re not sure what they’re angry at; they don’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street. They haven’t educated themselves, but they’re just pissed off. And I understand that, I’m pissed off too. But knowledge is power, and anything less than that when it comes to anger can be dangerous." -- Sheryl Crow
3) "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." — The Dixie Chicks on George Bush at a London concert
4) "This presidential election is different than the last one because President Obama has a four year record to run on. Last time around, he carried with him a tremendous amount of hope and expectations. Unfortunately, due to the economic chaos the previous administration left him with, and the extraordinary intensity of the opposition, it turned into a really rough ride. But through grit, determination, and focus, the President has been able to do a great many things that many of us deeply support.
...Right now the opposition’s resort to voter suppression in so many states is not receiving as much attention as it deserves. I believe that all of us, of whatever views, should be opposing these anti-voter, anti-citizen efforts.
Right now, for the President to be effective in his next term he needs our increased support and he needs support in the Congress, where some sterling candidates, such as current Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, challenger Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, and so many others, are fighting to make their constructive voices heard.
...Right now, we need a President who has a vision that includes all of our citizens, not just some, whether they are our devastated poor, our pressured middle class, and yes, the wealthy too; whether they are male or female, black, white, brown, or yellow, straight or gay, civilian or military." -- Bruce Springsteen
5) "No one’s talking about how to keep the other side home on Election Day. It’s a lot easier than you think and it doesn’t cost that much. This election can be won by 200,000 votes. You target (Bush’s) natural constituencies. For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion.” — Kerry supporter Moby explains his unique political strategy — just making things up." -- Moby
6) "I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama." -- Madonna
7) "House Republicans state firm opposition to any new limits on firearms or ammunition. How much more death will we have at their hands?" -- Bette Midler
8) "Republican Super PACs are pounding President Obama and Democratic candidates with millions of dollars of vicious attack ads. And, they could tip the balance of the election for Tea Party extremists.
That would be a disaster for America and we can’t let it happen. We must close the funding gap.
That’s why I’m urging you to donate $3 or more to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) today." -- Barbra Streisand
9) "Don't mistake me, I clearly see that (Paul) Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions." -- Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine after Paul Ryan said he was a fan of their band
10) "George Bush doesn’t care about black people." -- Kanye West
Source: Townhall.com
John Hawkins | May 28, 2013
"Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have." -- Saul Alinsky
Republicans spend too much time complaining about liberals boycotting the advertisers on conservatives’ shows and not enough time doing the same thing to the Left. If movie stars trash conservatives, we should be very publicly telling people we're not going to their films and we should take credit if they bomb. If a corporate CEO embraces liberalism, don't buy that company’s products and tell the world why you're doing it. Let him explain to his board of directors why standing up for gay marriage or abortion was worth losing millions of dollars. Seventy percent of the country is Christian, roughly half the country supports the Republican Party and forty percent of Americans are conservative. There are a lot of businesses, artists and musicians who simply cannot survive without the support of people like us. The only reason they dare to trash us or publicly support people who hate our guts is because we all too often shrug our shoulders and then willingly hand over our money to people who despise us.
When it comes to musicians who attack conservatives, Christians, Republicans, America -- or alternately, embrace the Left, don't give them your money. Don't buy their albums or their T-shirts and don’t go to their shows. Even if you do like their music, don't pay for it and don't talk it up publicly. Fans are oxygen for these people -- starve them of it and let other musicians start to worry about the reaction if they go after us.
That's not unfair; it's just restoring balance. People who rely on the goodwill of the general public shouldn't be trashing the people who pay their bills. Artists should be flattered, not outraged when Republican politicians want to use their songs. Conservatives in the music industry shouldn't be cowed into silence by threats and abuse while liberal musicians smear the conservatives, Christians, Republicans and patriots who buy their records with no repercussions.
Because the musicians have gotten away with doing fundraisers for the Democrats, trashing us without paying a price and generally crapping all over everything we believe in while they trumpet liberalism to the skies, it would take an entire website to catalogue everyone who deserves to be on this list, but here are 10 to start with. It's a free country and these musicians can say what they want, but consumers can also spend their money where they want, too. Let some of these musicians start to see the impact of trashing us on their bottom lines and you will be surprised at how fast attitudes will begin to change.
1) "Kill those f*cking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives Kill those f*cking Yankees who ordered them to torture Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers Kill them all slowly and painfully." -- Psy
2) "My main concern is that (The Tea Party is) really fear-based. What’s coming out of the Tea Party most often, especially if you go onto YouTube, and you see some of the interviews with these people who really don’t even know what the issues are, they’re just swept up in the fear of it and the anger of it. They’re not sure what they’re angry at; they don’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street. They haven’t educated themselves, but they’re just pissed off. And I understand that, I’m pissed off too. But knowledge is power, and anything less than that when it comes to anger can be dangerous." -- Sheryl Crow
3) "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." — The Dixie Chicks on George Bush at a London concert
4) "This presidential election is different than the last one because President Obama has a four year record to run on. Last time around, he carried with him a tremendous amount of hope and expectations. Unfortunately, due to the economic chaos the previous administration left him with, and the extraordinary intensity of the opposition, it turned into a really rough ride. But through grit, determination, and focus, the President has been able to do a great many things that many of us deeply support.
...Right now the opposition’s resort to voter suppression in so many states is not receiving as much attention as it deserves. I believe that all of us, of whatever views, should be opposing these anti-voter, anti-citizen efforts.
Right now, for the President to be effective in his next term he needs our increased support and he needs support in the Congress, where some sterling candidates, such as current Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, challenger Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, and so many others, are fighting to make their constructive voices heard.
...Right now, we need a President who has a vision that includes all of our citizens, not just some, whether they are our devastated poor, our pressured middle class, and yes, the wealthy too; whether they are male or female, black, white, brown, or yellow, straight or gay, civilian or military." -- Bruce Springsteen
5) "No one’s talking about how to keep the other side home on Election Day. It’s a lot easier than you think and it doesn’t cost that much. This election can be won by 200,000 votes. You target (Bush’s) natural constituencies. For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion.” — Kerry supporter Moby explains his unique political strategy — just making things up." -- Moby
6) "I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama." -- Madonna
7) "House Republicans state firm opposition to any new limits on firearms or ammunition. How much more death will we have at their hands?" -- Bette Midler
8) "Republican Super PACs are pounding President Obama and Democratic candidates with millions of dollars of vicious attack ads. And, they could tip the balance of the election for Tea Party extremists.
That would be a disaster for America and we can’t let it happen. We must close the funding gap.
That’s why I’m urging you to donate $3 or more to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) today." -- Barbra Streisand
9) "Don't mistake me, I clearly see that (Paul) Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions." -- Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine after Paul Ryan said he was a fan of their band
10) "George Bush doesn’t care about black people." -- Kanye West
Source: Townhall.com
Rand Paul: Obamacare Diagnostic Codes List 'Turtle Injuries, Walking into Lampposts'
5.28.2013
Sen. Rand Paul, Obamacare foe and medical professional, says there are some strange new diagnostic codes in the healthcare law set to go into effect in January 2014.
While there are 18,000 diagnostic codes under the current system, "under Obamacare they're going to keep you healthier because there's going to be 140,000 codes," Paul said at an Iowa Lincoln Day dinner in early May.
Some in the crowd gasped at the increase. But they began to laugh when Paul, R-Ky., began outlining some of the new codes, the Daily Mail reported.
See video below.
Injuries from animals account for 312 of the new codes, he said, with 72 of them coming just from birds.
"Nine new codes are for injuries from the macaw," Paul said. "The macaw?"
And two new code are for injuries from a turtle.
"Now, you might say, 'Well, turtles can be dangerous,'" Paul said. "But why do you need two new codes? Your doctor needs to inform the government whether you've been struck by a turtle or bitten by a turtle."
Noting that some people at the event were consuming alcohol, Paul pointed out that other new codes include "walking into a lampost" and "walking into a lamppost, subsequent encounter."
"I guess that's if you don't learn," Paul said.
One that seemed to defy explanation; injuries sustained from burning water skis.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Sen. Rand Paul, Obamacare foe and medical professional, says there are some strange new diagnostic codes in the healthcare law set to go into effect in January 2014.
While there are 18,000 diagnostic codes under the current system, "under Obamacare they're going to keep you healthier because there's going to be 140,000 codes," Paul said at an Iowa Lincoln Day dinner in early May.
Some in the crowd gasped at the increase. But they began to laugh when Paul, R-Ky., began outlining some of the new codes, the Daily Mail reported.
See video below.
Injuries from animals account for 312 of the new codes, he said, with 72 of them coming just from birds.
"Nine new codes are for injuries from the macaw," Paul said. "The macaw?"
And two new code are for injuries from a turtle.
"Now, you might say, 'Well, turtles can be dangerous,'" Paul said. "But why do you need two new codes? Your doctor needs to inform the government whether you've been struck by a turtle or bitten by a turtle."
Noting that some people at the event were consuming alcohol, Paul pointed out that other new codes include "walking into a lampost" and "walking into a lamppost, subsequent encounter."
"I guess that's if you don't learn," Paul said.
One that seemed to defy explanation; injuries sustained from burning water skis.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Concealed Handguns License holders in Texas can now carry any category of handgun
5.28.13
AUSTIN, Texas - (AP) - The Texas Legislature has changed the law for concealed handgun license holders to allow them to carry any category of weapon.
Lawmakers gave the bill final passage on Sunday and the measure now goes to the governor for his signature.
Previously, people licensed to have concealed handguns could only carry the type of pistol they used during their training and qualification.
The new bill allows license holders to carry any type of handgun, regardless of what category of weapon they used to qualify.
The Legislature has already passed a law reducing the number or hours of training needed to receive a concealed handgun license in Texas.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Lawmakers gave the bill final passage on Sunday and the measure now goes to the governor for his signature.
Previously, people licensed to have concealed handguns could only carry the type of pistol they used during their training and qualification.
The new bill allows license holders to carry any type of handgun, regardless of what category of weapon they used to qualify.
The Legislature has already passed a law reducing the number or hours of training needed to receive a concealed handgun license in Texas.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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