What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Claims by the Obama admin over who was responsible for a Syrian chemical attack are having their accuracy challenged by some experts. This was part of the admins supposed evidence to justify entering the Syrian conflict.
From TheMiamiHerald “A series of revelations about the rocket believed to have delivered poison sarin gas to a Damascus suburb last summer are challenging American intelligence assumptions about that attack and suggest that the case U.S. officials initially made for retaliatory military action was flawed.
A team of security and arms experts, meeting this week in Washington to discuss the matter, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government positions where the Obama administration insists they originated.
Separately, international weapons experts are puzzling over why the rocket in question – an improvised 330mm to 350mm rocket equipped with a large receptacle on its nose to hold chemicals – reportedly did not appear in the Syrian government’s declaration of its arsenal to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and apparently was not uncovered by OPCW inspectors who believe they’ve destroyed Syria’s ability to deliver a chemical attack.
Neither development proves decisively that Syrian government forces did not fire the chemicals that killed hundreds of Syrians in the early morning hours of Aug. 21. U.S. officials continue to insist that the case for Syrian government responsibility for the attack in East Ghouta is stronger than any suggestion of rebel involvement, while experts say it is possible Syria left the rockets out of its chemical weapons declaration simply to make certain it could not be tied to the attack.”
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2. More Benghazi info from the just released report. This info makes the NY Times piece about Al-Qaeda not being involved even more laughable.
From CNSNews “On August 16, 2012–a little less than a month before the terrorist attacks on the U.S. State Department and CIA facilities in Benghazi, Libya–Amb. Chris Stevens sent a cable to State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. stating that a CIA officer on the ground in Benghazi had briefed a State Department officer in that city the day before “on the location of approximately ten Islamist militias and AQ training camps within Benghazi.”
“The CIA officer’s discussion of the “AQ training camps” in Benghazi occurred at an “Emergency Action Committee” meeting convened August 15, 2012 by the State Department’s principal officer in Benghazi. “In an August 16, 2012, cable to State headquarters, Stevens raised additional concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi following an Emergency Action Committee (EAC) meeting held on August 15, 2012, in Benghazi,” says a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on Benghazi that was released today.”
“The CIA officer’s statements at the August 15, 2012 EAC in Benghazi was not the only warning the CIA issued about the threat from terrorists–including al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists–in Benghazi before the Sept. 11, 2012 attack. The Defense Department, like the CIA, was also sounding warnings about the growing threat from terrorists and al Qaeda in Libya, and particularly in eastern Libya, according to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report.”
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3. This one isn’t shocking, but it could be dangerous. But in a PC world we can’t target only the groups who are blowing people up. 🙄
From TheNYTimes “The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.
The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.”
“The Bush administration banned profiling in 2003, but with two caveats: It did not apply to national security cases, and it covered only race, not religion, ancestry or other factors.
Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress to eliminate those provisions. “These exceptions are a license to profile American Muslims and Hispanic-Americans,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in 2012.”
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4. For this next one, you need some background music. Hit the play button. 🙂
Now read this….
From InvestorsBusinessDaily “Attorney General Eric Holder has opened up a new front against car lenders and has forged an alliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to frame them for racism, too.”
“For starters, Justice had to guess the race of Ally’s black customers from Census data for black neighborhoods. The auto-finance industry does not report the race of borrowers like the mortgage industry.”
“So “victims” were never actually identified. That’s why the complaint has to estimate that Ally discriminated against “approximately” 100,000 African-American borrowers.
More shocking, civil-rights prosecutors never actually checked the creditworthiness of those borrowers. That’s right, they never looked at credit scores, down payments, debt or other key risk-related factors banks consider to set interest rates. Not for blacks, or for supposedly “similarly situated” whites.”
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5. This one is just Joe being Joe I guess. 🙄
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6. This one isn’t shocking either, but it is a bit much, even for Democrats.
From ThePuebloChieftan “Saying some neighborhoods have more pot shops than banks, Colorado Democrats on Wednesday rejected a proposal to ban the use of public assistance cards to obtain cash at marijuana-shop ATMs.
The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 3-2 along party lines against a GOP proposal to add marijuana shops to the list of places where recipients of public assistance can’t use their government-issued EBT cards to access cash.”
“Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, said Colorado’s new legal pot industry needs to make sure not to invite federal scrutiny through improper cash withdrawals at recreational or medical marijuana stores.”
“I’m not comfortable limiting that access until I’m certain we’ve done that due diligence to make sure people can access their benefits when they need to,” Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, said.”
Those silly Republicans. I’m sure nobody will use the cash for weed. 🙄
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Wandering Views 
Farewell to Senator Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma who is retiring early. He has been my favorite Senator for years.
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I read an interesting article the other day, perhaps in our paper, about those poor marijuana proprietors not being able to use banks. It appears banks don’t understand or don’t want to risk running foul of the various governments that have legalized or not legalized marijuana. Rather than risk scrutiny, apparently by the federal government, and having their assets seized, they refused to provide bank accounts to the “merchants.”
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Now that it has happened in a few states, the only solution is to legalize pot nationally and tax the dickens out of it just like alcohol and tobacco. What is the cost of a pack of cigarettes these days? $6-$8. I do know from listing a convenience store once that about 90% of that cost is tax. Otherwise it is still going to be “underground”.
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I heard today the rate of smoking has gone down to 18% of the population. I know I’m continually surprised when I run into a smoker–I thought everyone had given up on that a long time ago.
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RW: Sen. Coburn will be sorely missed.
Speaking of Oklahoma, how would you like to meet up in OKC on April 3rd for the Spurs-Thunder game that evening?
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