What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Huh. And I just read in the NY Times that Al-Qaeda had nothing to do with Benghazi, and wasn’t even there according to the Times reporter. Go figure… 🙄
From FoxNews “The U.S. government is trying to apprehend an al Qaeda terrorist wanted for his role in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack that killed four Americans.
The suspect, Muhammad Jamal, was imprisoned in Egypt last fall and in September was being held by the Egyptian government. His current whereabouts could not be confirmed, said U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. One official said Jamal remains in Egyptian custody, contrary to reports that he was in Yemen.
Jamal was labeled a designated terrorist by the United Nations Oct. 18, identifying him and the group he formed, the Muhammad Jamal Network, as linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack.”
Just further proof that the Times piece was nothing more than an attempt to provide cover for the Hillary 2016 team.
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2. Once again Democrats seeking to be all-inclusive almost let the fox into the hen-house. Just like with the Brotherhood, they’re enabling questionable people, assisting them, and taking their advice.
From TheFreeBeacon “The representative of a human rights group headed by a designated al Qaeda terrorist was denied a visa by the State Department after being invited by congressional Democrats to discuss drone strikes.
Mohammad Al Ahmady, the Yemen director for Geneva-based NGO Al Karama, was expected to brief Reps. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), and Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) the morning of the Nov. 19, according to press release from Grayson’s office.
Ahmady, who also serves as a top official in an al Qaeda-linked Yemeni political party, did not attend because of visa issues. The State Department said it could not comment on visa matters.
Several Al Karama officials have faced terrorism allegations. Al Karama’s founder and current president Abdul Rahman Naimi was designated as a terrorist and al Qaeda supporter by the U.S. Treasury Department in December, along with the group’s Yemen representative Abdulwahab Al-Humayqani. Al Karama’s legal director, Rachid Mesli, is currently wanted for terrorism charges in Algeria.”
And it gets worse. These people are involved with AQ in Iraq and Syria, as well as funding them. In the case of Iraq, they sent as much as 2 million a month to the very people our soldiers were fighting.
Now they all play dumb and blame each other for their blunder. Typical.
Click the text and read the whole thing. This wasn’t an accident. This is the type of people Democrats and the president regularly take advice from. And the UN is considering their application for “consultant” status as well.
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3. Here’s an interesting read on the percent of men arrested before the age of 23. If this is accurate, it’s over 40%. I think more details on how this was figured would be helpful because those numbers are pretty shocking. Or is this the chickens of a fatherless society coming home to roost? And how much is the result of the failed “War on Drugs?”
From TheHuffPost “A large number of American men have already been arrested by the time they’re in their early 20s, according to a new report.
The study, published on Monday in the journal Crime & Delinquency, found that nearly half (49 percent) of African-American men and 40 percent of white men have been arrested by the age of 23, “which can hurt their ability to find work, go to school and participate fully in their communities,” according to a press release.
The research was based on an analysis of national survey data from 1997 to 2008 of teenagers and young adults. The arrests included minor crimes like truancy as well as serious violent crimes. It excluded traffic offenses.”
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4. Looks like the talking heads at MSNBC are getting a much-needed babysitter so they stop embarrassing the network, as if that alone is their problem. But don’t be too optimistic, his previous babysitting job was as executive producer for Keith Olbermann, and we all know how well that turned out…. 🙂
From NationalReview “MSNBC, the left-leaning cable-news network, has settled on one solution to its recent problems. It now has an executive reviewing scripts before they go on the air. The role, which has fallen to Rich Stockwell, a former executive producer of The Ed Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann who now oversees special projects at the network, was created as several of the network’s hosts have, to the embarrassment of network brass, conducted a master class in political incorrectness. In recent months, Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir, and, most recently, Melissa Harris-Perry have awkwardly crashed into the trinity of sexual orientation, gender, and race, leading many to wonder if there are any adults in charge at MSNBC.
There is one such adult, actually, and her name is Rachel Maddow. Though she provides the network’s ideological vision — MSNBC president Phil Griffin has called her “our quarterback” — she’s neither an executive nor a manager. Griffin, who wears both hats, is, from all appearances, letting the inmates run the asylum. Meanwhile, the network that Griffin has labeled “the place for progressives” is experiencing a free fall in its ratings, which are down 29 percent from 2012. A decline was expected after a presidential-election year, but MSNBC’s competitors did not suffer as acutely. Fox News was down only 5 percent in total viewers (it suffered far more in the coveted 25–54 demographic, where the network has persistently struggled); CNN’s numbers, under the stewardship of newly installed president Jeff Zucker, remained flat.
Apologies are rare in the world of television, but they have come from MSNBC at a regular clip in recent months. “Anti-gay slurs are wrong,” Baldwin said in late November. Days before, he had accosted a photographer who was following his family and allegedly hurled an anti-gay slur in his direction. The same day Baldwin issued his apology, Martin Bashir took to the air with a clumsy pontification about Sarah Palin, slavery, and human excrement. By early December, both Baldwin and Bashir had announced that they were leaving the network.
The dust had hardly settled before Tulane professor cum MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry was tearfully apologizing to “families formed through transracial adoption.” She had led a holiday humor segment on December 30 that used as its jumping-off point a Romney-family photo. Harris-Perry said the segment took an “unexpected” turn as her guests poked fun at Mitt Romney’s adopted African-American grandson.”
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5. We have a winner! After Auburn pulled a Kansas City and blew a big lead, FSU wins the national championship 34-31.
From MSN/FoxSports “For all Jameis Winston had done as a redshirt freshman for Florida State, he never had to pull the Seminoles from the brink of defeat.
In the biggest game of the year, down by four with 79 seconds left, the Heisman Trophy winner put together the drive of his life, and the Seminoles proved they could take a punch to win a championship.
Winston threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left and No. 1 Florida State beat No. 2 Auburn 34-31 to win the BCS national title game on Monday night.”
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Wandering Views 
Seen on Facebook:
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“If you make $50,000 per year, you pay:
$247.75 a year for defense
$3.98 a year for natural disaster relief (FEMA)
$22.88 a year for unemployment insurance
$36.82 a year for SNAP (food stamps)
$6.96 a year for welfare
$43.78 a year for retirement and disability to
government workers (civilian and military)
$235.81 a year for Medicare
$4000 a year in corporate subsidies
Are you sure you’re p___ed off at the right people?”
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Anyone know how accurate this is? I tried googling parts of it, which only lead me to other articles using these stats. (I’m not too good at digging deeper with Google.)
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Karen- I don’t know about the rest of the numbers, but the Medicare one is off by over $500. I made just short of $50k last year and my pay stub says “MEDICARE $708.95”. I wonder how much of that I’ll actually see.
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Trying to push the envelope, apparently:
http://www.religionnews.com/2014/01/07/satanists-release-design-proposed-oklahoma-state-capitol-monument/
OKLAHOMA CITY (RNS) The New York-based Satanic Temple prematurely released design plans for a Satanist monument it hopes to place on the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds (next to the 10 Commandments)
“. … The plans show a 7-foot tall-statue of a seated Satan flanked by two children. The design includes two important Satanist symbols: the pentacle, located above Satan’s head, and the baphomet. Greaves said the goat-headed baphomet is believed to be a symbol of idolatry that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping, and it is now part of disparate occult and mystical traditions….
“’The symbol is now a constitutionally protected one that stands for the rights of heretics, for tolerance and free inquiry, and for the unjustly outcast,’ Greaves said.”
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2. Since the State Dept. denied him a visa I doubt Obama is listening to him. If anything this demonstrates theh split between the DLC Democrats including Obama, Clinton, etc and progressive Democrats. Obama has endorsed drones with far more vigour than Bush much to the chagrin of the left. While Obama continues to hit Yemen, Pakistan and other targets, the left, progressives, HRW, and AI have consulted with organizations on the ground for information and details about their effects. A good source on the drone wars is Jeremy Scahill’s new book Dirty Wars. Here’s my review;
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/700899708
3. The short answer is the drug war. Other likely causes include inequality ie the decline of the blue collar middle class and a culture of fear which demands excessive punishment despite low crime rates. The right wing Economist blames the drug war. http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-8
Leftist critics sometimes call it the American Gulag and with 716 per 100,000 imprisoned (wikipedia) or 1 in every 107 (the Economist), its understandable. To compare Cuba and Russia are in the 500s, Eastern Europe in the 300s, Spain, Portugal and the UK at around 150 and Canada is at 110. I know some people like to stereotype Americans as violent criminals but there’s no way they have more criminals than Russia and Canadians can’t be as saintly as they look in this comparison.
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Karen — I saw the post on Facebook too. I check a few left wing sites and its being heavily criticized by posters there. Many cited Medicare cost similar to Peter L.
This link explains how they arrived at the figure for corporate subsidies.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/23
A lot of their numbers are derived from revenue missed from corporation and not necessarily money payed from taxpayer to corporations. So the graphic is misleading.
Here’s a more accurate article which makes essentially the same point; food stamps and other aid to the poor are not a big expense
http://www.examiner.com/article/a-person-making-50-000-a-year-pays-10-cents-a-day-taxes-for-food-stamps
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Thanks, Hwesseli.
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