What’s interesting in the news today?
1. NBC’s Brian Williams has been exposed for falsely claiming he was in a chopper hit by RPG fire in Iraq in 2003. This was a long-standing lie he discussed many times. Now, in his apology that really isn’t one, he claims to just have mis-remembered it, for 12 years, and while repeatedly telling the story…
He must have went to the Dan Rather “fake but accurate” school of journalism.
From StarsAndStripes, who broke the story “NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years.
Williams repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters, a game to which Williams accompanied him. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry.
The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Williams told his Nightly News audience that the erroneous claim was part of a “bungled attempt” to thank soldiers who helped protect him in Iraq in 2003. “I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” Williams said. “I want to apologize.””
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2. ISIS has picked a fight with someone they shouldn’t have, someone who has the resolve to fight them all out.
From FoxNews “Jordan’s King Abdullah, himself a former general, angrily vowed to pursue ISIS until his military runs “out of fuel and bullets,” in a closed door meeting with U.S. lawmakers that followed the release Wednesday of a grisly video showing a captured Jordanian airman being burned alive in a cage by the terrorist army.
The pledge preceded the hanging of two Al Qaeda terrorists early Wednesday in Jordan, a swift response to the video that could be a mere harbinger of coming retribution from the Arab kingdom in the wake of the sadistic slaughter. King Abdullah’s words were echoed by military leaders, who vowed an “earth-shaking” response, proportionate to the magnitude of the tragedy of all Jordanians.” But it was the words of their visibly shaken king, who commanded his nation’s special forces before assuming the throne in 1999, that could foreshadow what is in store for the black-clad terrorist army whose atrocities have shocked the civilized world.
“He said there is going to be retribution like ISIS hasn’t seen,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., R-Calif., a Marine Corps veteran of two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, who was in the meeting with the king. “He mentioned ‘Unforgiven’ and he mentioned Clint Eastwood, and he actually quoted a part of the movie.”
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3. No good deed goes unpunished…
From TheWashingtonExaminer “Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady is facing a $60,500 bill from the IRS just for winning the game, according to a new report.
Americans for Tax Reform said he will have to pay $42,000 on his share of the $97,000 for playing in the championship, and another $18,500 for giving away the red Chevy Colorado pickup truck he won for being MVP to fellow player Malcolm Butler, who caught the game-winning interception.
They said Brady will have to pay about $13,000 in income tax on the prize, and then another $5,000 “gift tax” for doing a nice thing in giving Butler the keys.
“That’s a $5,000 gift tax on top of a $13,500 income tax on the truck, for a combined federal tax hit of $18,500,” said ATR, headed by Washington tax foe Grover Norquist.”
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4. But bad deeds could produce a cash windfall…
From TheWashingtonTimes “IRS Commissioner John Koskinen confirmed Tuesday that illegal immigrants granted amnesty from deportation under President Obama’s new policies would be able to get extra refunds from the IRS for money they earned while working illegally, as long as they filed returns during those years.
Illegal immigrants who are granted the amnesty will be given official Social Security numbers, which means they can go back and amend up to three years of previous tax forms to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, potentially claiming billions of dollars in additional payments they were ineligible for before the amnesty.
Mr. Koskinen said they will have to have already filed returns for those back-years, and there’s a statute of limitations that governs how far they can go back, but said the agency’s current interpretation of laws would allow them to claim the EITC credit retroactively.”
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Wandering Views 
I see in theWashington Times that “A leaked Customs and Border Protection report revealed people from 75 countries use the land route via the southern border to gain access to the United States, with it being the preferred route by illegals entering from Syria.”
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Obama played the Crusades card to defend Muslim Extremism. Funny how they have to go back a thousand years and use bad history to find a close comparison.
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kbells, exactly. 😉
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Ah yes, the Crusades…… the liberal fallback position whenever discussing muslim extremism…. 🙄
And also, note the race card for the 5 millionth time…. again, how original…. :roll;
Panderin’ to the base I guess.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/05/obama-at-national-prayer-breakfast-people-committed-terrible-deeds-in-the-name-of-christ/
“At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well.
Obama said that even though religion is a source for good around the world, there will always be people willing to “hijack religion for their own murderous ends.”
“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.””
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Are we every bit as bad as they are?
NO! Worse!
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As my kids at school used to say, “He’s a liar and his breath stinks!”
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To attack all religions is a typical Liberal Islamaphobia-phobia defense. Then when you remind them of all the atrocities by atheist like Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao Zedung the logic really gets weird.
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The importance of religious liberty issues in the upcoming election:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russell-moore-what-will-matter-to-evangelicals-in-2016-1423179343
” … the most important test of 2016 may be the Thomas Jefferson Primary — the race to see which candidates offer a clear, coherent vision of religious liberty when the very idea is contested in American politics …”
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